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Also by Alex Lemon
Fancy Beasts
Hallelujah Blackout
Happy: A Memoir
Mosquito
© 2014, Text by Alex Lemon
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical articles or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher: Milkweed Editions, 1011 Washington Avenue South, Suite 300, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55415.
(800) 520-6455
Published 2014 by Milkweed Editions
Cover design by Stewart A. Williams
Cover photo/illustration by Stewart A. Williams
Author photo by Ariane Balizet
13 14 15 16 17 5 4 3 2 1
First Edition
Milkweed Editions, an independent nonprofit publisher, gratefully acknowledges sustaining support from the Bush Foundation; the Patrick and Aimee Butler Foundation; the Dougherty Family Foundation; the Driscoll Foundation; the Jerome Foundation; the Lindquist & Vennum Foundation; the McKnight Foundation; the voters of Minnesota through a Minnesota State Arts Board Operating Support grant, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund, and a grant from the Wells Fargo Foundation Minnesota; the National Endowment for the Arts; the Target Foundation; and other generous contributions from foundations, corporations, and individuals. For a full listing of Milkweed Editions supporters, please visit www.milkweed.org.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lemon, Alex
[Poems. Selections]
The Wish Book : Poems / Alex Lemon. — First Edition.
p. cm.
Summary: "Offering unrestrained descriptions of sensory overload and tender meditations on fatherhood and mortality, these poems blur the nebulous line between the personal and the pop-cultural"
ISBN 978-1-57131-843-5
(e-book) (print)
I. Title.
PS3612.E468A6 2014
811'.6--dc23
Milkweed Editions is committed to ecological stewardship. We strive to align our book production practices with this principle, and to reduce the impact of our operations in the environment. We are a member of the Green Press Initiative, a nonprofit coalition of publishers, manufacturers, and authors working to protect the world’s endangered forests and conserve natural resources. The Wish Book was printed on acid-free 100% postconsumer-waste paper by Friesens Corporation.
For Felix . . .
More powerful than dynamite
Contents
Still Life With Birthday Cake & Dynamite
Maybe You’ll Be Young & Pretty Forever
They’ll Be Passing Out Lifejackets Soon
Haruspex
My Favorite Coup d’état
Falling Asleep In A Stranger’s Bathtub
Rube Baby Rube
Pole-Dancing With Ghosts
And The Wind Sings Boo
They Know Not What To Do With Their Suffering
Disneyfication
The Blowdown
Marooning
This Pledge Drive Don’t End
Volant
7-7-7
Not Yet A Word, Climbing Out Of Your Little Cage
THREE
Real-Live Bleeding
FOUR
The Pleasure Dome
Your Life Is The Bed I’m Gonna Lie Down In
Of Love Hot & Enormous
Shakedown Machine
Listen Now Pull It Together Focus
