Michel Houellebecq, Serotonin (opening line; trans, Shaun Whiteside)
It’s a small, white, scored oval tablet.
Small is good, white is forever throwing shade
(& that’s just not clicket, bluddah)
Like someone scored a century at Lord’s
or a lid behind the library
(We’ve hit numero 100% completion, hon!)
Makes us all happy together
singularly… even pseudonymously
You never really remember which…
Pls don’t re-uptake this tab inhibitor
let it go, might just be our last
over at the oval 1
Bohumil Hrabal, Too Loud a Solitude (opening line; trans, Michael Henry Heim)
For thirty-five years now I’ve been in wastepaper, and it’s my love story.
We’ve been in wastepaper too
thirty-one years grading paper
heavy bond A+ to F- see-thru, kiddo
31/4: a unique life mission
against the grain Vocation Literacy (oh boy)
a life purpose not by the book (uh-oh)
35/8: a knack for material acquisition (knack knack)
The money triad… a powerhouse of wealth creation
— its sister vibration 53/8 (social activism)
Not so ♫ Happy Together ♫ (oops)
This love story a failed romance,
illiterate doth trump innumerate
45 ways to someday
… until the blowhard’s long gone 2
Denis Johnson, Resusciation of a Hanged Man (opening lines)
He came there in the off-season. So much was off. All bets were off. The last deal was off. His timing was off, or he wouldn’t have come here at this moment…
They came in through the bathroom window
Protected by a silver spoon
their timing only slightly off
low-season for a PoWorld swoon
Deal’s now off… all bets too (hoho)
skid marks down the off-ramp
dumped ShowWorld in the loo
Menu is sooo off, venue rotted through
old virtues signal nothing here was new
Even kitchen sink’s a sure throw
for yr groupthink carnival row
that trademark Operation Crow
This is where your franchise lies, poesy
them poets can reel but they sure can’t bob
So lob the bathroom window up yr silvery moon
novel lines could unspool this poetry’s cartoon
leave Emperors of GloWorld clung to their
proJected greasy spoon 3
From Novel Lines 101: 101 alphabetical poems, each riffing on the opening line of a postmodern novel or metafiction
Stephen Bett is a widely and internationally published Canadian poet with 26 books in print (from BlazeVOX, Chax, Spuyten Duyvil, & others). His personal papers are archived in the “Contemporary Literature Collection” at Simon Fraser University. His website is StephenBett.com
His most recent books are: Broken Glosa: an alphabet book of post-avant glosa, Chax Press (2023): Broken Glosa by Stephen Bett | chax
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