"Panoramic View" up at The Academy of American Poets & in the Poem Flow app

From Brink.

The Best Thanksgiving Ever

 by Jennifer L. Knox

After the meal, Sandy decided we should spice up charades

by slapping the loser's butt with a ping-pong paddle.

Whenever Ed got slapped, he farted because he was so nervous.

The ladies won, slapped all the men's butts, but then what to do?

"Take off your clothes!" I told Sean, who didn't seem like the kind

of guy who'd do such a thing—but he was, and he did. Then Jim

took off his clothes. Then John. And then the other Jim

who brought all the lovely bottles of wine. And finally Ed.

Deb came out of the bathroom and saw five big men naked in the kitchen.

They screamed, "Take off your clothes!" We all figured she would,

and she did. Then Sandy the Slapmaster, then me, then Tomoko

who kept her glasses on. We walked around the house naked,

talking about how it was to be naked with other naked people,

how none of the guys had boners, and how cold it was out in the garage.

Somebody found a big bottle of vodka. We made a no-hugging rule.

John kept trying to open the curtains and show the neighbors

what they were missing. Deb thought an orgy was imminent,

but since we'd all spent a lot of time in Iowa, I didn't think it would fly.

Jim passed out. Ed put a robe on. I passed out. We woke up

the next morning in t-shirts, ate bagels from Bagel Land, and said,

"We all got naked last night." That afternoon, on our way

to the Walt Whitman Mall, the ladies gave each other nicknames

ending with the word "Bitch." Deb was Stupid Bitch,

Sandy was Gentle Bitch, Tomoko was Fucking Bitch and I was Precious Bitch.

All the bitches agreed that slapping people's butts with a paddle

was something we needed to do every weekend, that this was the best

Thanksgiving ever, and that Ed had the biggest dick we'd ever seen.

Originally published in Painted Bride Quarterly. 

This poem is from Jennifer's book A Gringo Like Me. You know you want it.

November news

Brink by Shanna Compton is now available for preorder. We're expecting books to begin shipping the day after Thanksgiving (11/23), with an official release date of December 15. But you can order it now for $5 off. Details here.

Sandra Simonds will be in Chicago Wednesday, November 14, reading at Danny's Reading Series with Betsy Wheeler & Hannah Gamble. Details here, or on our events page.

Sandra Simonds, Jennifer L. Knox & Shanna Compton are joining Brenda Coultas & Todd Colby for a reading in Brooklyn on Friday, November 16 at the Stain of Poetry. Details here, or on our events page.

The next night, November 17 and also in Brooklyn, Becca Klaver, Jennifer L. Knox, Sandra Simonds, & Shanna Compton team up with Hanna Andrews, Susan Brennan, Michael Broder, Bonnie Rose Marcus, Tim Trace Peterson & Jason Schneiderman to celebrate the work of Surrealist poet Joyce Mansour. Each poet will read from Mansour's work as well as their own. Details here, or on our events page.

We're working on the first chapbook in our new series, Packing by Hailey Higdon. We've just chosen the cover design and acquired all the materials. We're just waiting on a delivery of fresh ink so we can start printing! It'll be in the store by the end of this month.

We're in production on TINA too, the new book by Peter Davis, doing the final round of edits and brainstorming cover ideas. That'll be going to press in January, we think, for a March release.

We're excited to be bringing you Kirsten Kaschock's chapbook Windowboxing next year too! Here's Jed Rasula on Kirsten's novel Sleight at Attention Span:

Kirsten Kaschock | Sleight | Coffee House | 2011

Spellbinding: ostensibly a novel, Sleight reads like a critical theory treatise that’s been Pixared into plot and characters, with all the sentences personally airbrushed with the scrupulousness of Mallarmé.

Bonus: Here's a new interview with Danielle Pafunda, at Pank.