Two bourbons past the funeral by Andrew Hudgins

Poems

January 2013

Two bourbons past the funeral

Burke

was right!

Two bourbons past the funeral,
we were reading from the thin
old books of the old poet, past old now,
and another old poet fumbled
to his favorite poem. Where was it?
Not this book, but that, and then
he was reading, his voice reverent
and sure, until he caught on a word
like a coat on a barb, and hung there,
a low moan ululating on a long vowel
for the friend he knew almost entirely
from these words and his own voice
reading them. On and on the soft
moaning rose and fell, until he tore free
and snarled, “I told you not to do that.”
“Yes, you did,” he said, and turned again
to the old poem, reading as if he’d written it,
a small change here, a larger there,
correcting the fictions and false
felicities of his youth.

Andrew Hudgins is the author of Shut Up, You're Fine! Poems for Very, Very Bad Children (Overlook Press).

Webcasts

Poet George Green reads from his award-winning Lord Byron's Foot
George Green reads from Lord Byron's Foot, his collection of poetry that won the 2012 New Criterion Poetry Prize at a Friends & Young Friends event.

Celebration of the Life of Robert H. Bork, 1927–2012
From the memorial service for Robert H. Bork on April 9, 2013 at the Mayflower Hotel, Washington, DC.

James Panero on price gouging at the Met, with Fred Dicker
Are public museums like the Met overburdening visitors with "recommended" admission fees? Panero goes on 1300 AM to discuss his latest Daily News article during Fred Dicker's Albany-based radio program.

Weblog

The IRS scandal: bigger than you think

by Roger Kimball

May 22, 2013 11:55 AM

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by Brian P. Kelly

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by Eric Simpson

May 20, 2013 02:11 PM

The New Criterion

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