Months-dead grandfather
I couldn’t have written this when you were alive,
& you kept living,
unknown to me,
like someone not obscure but obsolescing
whose death surprises mainly by his
having been alive till now (I googled Lawrence Ferlinghetti
today – he’s still alive:–)
. & unknown to my mother
. she has a half-sister
. three weeks younger, alike unknown
Fatherhood is a bit of a mystery
when you put it about like that.
From you I have serial faithlessness
from you she has a name
. & a maiden name
. that I am asked to say when asked by one of the ‘team’
. on the Credit Card
. Hotline, it being typically something unknown
. to other people, even those we’re close to,
. (I made one up)
& her hoary orphan paranoia.
© Kit Fryatt , all rights reserved
Untitled poem by Kit Fryatt is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at http://wurmimapfel.net/.
Chris Murray 
2 responses to “A poem by Kit Fryatt”
Another brilliant poem by Kit Fryatt. Why hasn’t she been published by Faber & Faber (they accept unsolicited mss. if poetry) and William Morrow & Co. in the U.S.? Are they asleep at the coffee wagon?
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@ teenylove I’m touched that you think so well of my work. The fact is, I’ve never seriously considered submitting work to Faber or similar, and in this case I don’t think it has so much to do with gender as with milieu. Faber publish many poets whose work I respect and enjoy, but the press’s overall reputation and profile is that of the poetry establishment / industry, and I don’t think that’s really me. I’m interested in performance and experiment, and that’s taken me in different directions, and given me a set of contacts that are remote from the large trade houses. I always wanted to be published by Shearsman — I have huge respect for what Tony Frazer’s done with the press — and now I am. So I’m thrilled 🙂 Thanks again for the kind words!
Kit
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