Clint Margrave

November 10, 2023

“Putting Together Ikea Furniture” by Clint MargravePosted by

Clint Margrave

PUTTING TOGETHER IKEA FURNITURE

Who had to die to get to this moment? 
Your ass planted on the ground 
of the back patio, 
putting together this cheap table 
and chairs from Ikea. 
 
Think of the wars that had to be fought, 
the bloodbaths, 
the overthrowing of kings and kingdoms. 
 
The loggers who cut the wood 
in the forests of Romania, 
and Lithuania and Latvia, 
and in Lowndes, Alabama. 
Or the young environmentalist 
tweeting from her wooden table 
about the dangers of deforestation. 
 
Think of the men and women sweating in factories 
in China and Vietnam and Malaysia and Myanmar, 
in Poland and North America. 
 
The workers who built the skyscrapers, 
harnessed on platforms 100 stories high, 
feet dangling over cities, 
so you can try to decipher these directions 
drawn up by some Swedish surrealist 
in a corporate high rise, 
eating meatballs at his desk. 
 
The welders who melted steel 
and shaped it and reshaped it 
into containers, 
the cranes that lifted those containers off ships, 
the longshoreman who unloaded the cargo 
at the port of Los Angeles, 
miles from where you live. 
 
Think of the men in yellow hardhats 
driving bulldozers over dirt, 
laying gravel and asphalt, 
tar on their shoes 
and under their fingernails 
and in their lungs and noses. 
 
The roads and freeways and overpasses, 
the bridges so trucks from the port 
can deliver this furniture 
to the warehouse, 
where other trucks will deliver 
it to your front door. 
 
Here, in this house that you rent,
think of the carpenters, 
the cement mixed for the foundation, 
the original plumbers and electricians 
older than your dead grandparents, 
where tonight you and Diliana 
will eat dinner in the backyard, 
the food she’s assembled 
on this table you’ve assembled, 
an open bottle of wine 
under a gorgeous June sky, 
think of the sacrifice it took 
to make this moment happen, 
the tightening of things, 
the plugging things in, 
the hammering things down 
to hold it all together.
 

—from Rattle #81, Fall 2023

__________

Clint Margrave: “I write poetry because I’m not good at fixing anything.” (web)

Rattle Logo

January 24, 2021

“Toad Dies and Goes to Heaven” by Clint MargravePosted by

Clint Margrave

TOAD DIES AND GOES TO HEAVEN

in memory of Gerald Locklin (1941–2021)

Nobody is more surprised than he is.
First of all, Toad doesn’t believe in heaven,
and secondly, even if he did,
he never expected to visit.

In fact, he’s minorly disappointed.
Has he failed to achieve the properly
debauched life he so often courted?

But the food tastes good.
And you can drink all the frothy beer you want
and never have to go the bathroom.

The salads are made just the way he likes them too,
with lots of crunchy iceberg lettuce
and a good Roquefort dressing.
(But who is he kidding?
Nobody eats salads here.)

At least there aren’t any white clouds,
or saints with haloes,
just a dive bar with a few pretty angels.

They even have a poetry night!

And though the audience is dead
and the open mic literally goes on forever,
this time it isn’t annoying,
but filled with names like Dante and Homer
and Shakespeare and Szymborska …

“Hello Toad,” says his old pal Bukowski,
who approaches the bar and pulls up a stool.
“Good to see you again, Hank,” says Toad,
as they clink their glasses and take a drink,
not to their health, but ours.

—from Poets Respond
January 24, 2021

__________

Clint Margrave: “Many in the Southern California poetry community and across the country are mourning the loss of legendary Long Beach poet Gerald Locklin, who died of Covid last weekend. He was a mentor, colleague, and personal friend of mine. He was a kind and generous man and teacher, who inspired and encouraged thousands of young poets. He will be greatly missed but not forgotten. The character ‘Toad’ is a nod to the alter-ego Gerry often used in his own poems.” (web)

Rattle Logo

May 15, 2020

“The Meta-Metamorphosis” by Clint MargravePosted by

Clint Margrave

THE META-METAMORPHOSIS

As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning
from uneasy dreams, he found himself 
cancelled by a Twitter mob. 
“What happened?” he thought,
before the movers came 
and took away his bed.

After that, they took his desk,
the clothes in his closet,
all the books
on his shelf.
 
Of course, he was used to people
making up stories about him. 
The last time it happened, 
he’d lost his job,
his parents,
even his beloved sister Grete.
 
Maybe they’re right? he thought.
Maybe I am a monster.
 
Gregor’s room was spotless now,
even his filth wiped clean,
just a single nail in the wall 
where that old picture
of the pinup girl used to hang.
 
He handed the landlord his keys,
then stepped outside.
A tow truck was lifting 
his car onto a flatbed.
A small crowd of protesters 
had amassed on the curb
demanding he apologize.

“I’m sorry,” he said,
though he didn’t know what for,
which only made them angrier.

Tired from his restless sleep,
he decided to walk to a nearby Starbucks 
and buy a coffee, 
only to find his debit card declined. 

“Sorrynotsorry,” said the young barista,
who immediately 
hashtagged this with a photo
of him on Twitter.
 
Gregor sighed
as the two police officers  
escorted him out. 
 
He glanced at the sky one last time
before they shoved him 
in the back of a van.
The day was overcast.
The sun cancelled by clouds.

—from Rattle #67, Spring 2020
Students of Kim Addonizio

__________

Clint Margrave: “I took Kim’s online course in the fall of 2016. She helped me refine my poems for clarity, word choice, economy. I kept copies of her notes and only recently went back and looked at them for a particular poem I was still struggling with. After countless attempts to resolve its problems, I realized the answer had already been in the advice she gave me three years earlier, and I’d just been ignoring it.” (web)

Rattle Logo

February 26, 2020

“When Death Travels” by Clint MargravePosted by

Clint Margrave

WHEN DEATH TRAVELS

No one makes him
take his shoes off at security
or asks to see his boarding pass.
 
There are no bags to check
because baggage is strictly for the living.
 
No windows on the plane
because there’s nothing to see.
 
No seatbelts because
there’s nothing to impact.
 
The flight attendants
attend to nothing.
 
And though there are delays,
there are never any cancellations.
 
No one greets him at the gate
or holds a sign with his name.
No one is happy to see him.

—from Rattle #66, Winter 2019

__________

Clint Margrave: “I write poetry because I’m not good at fixing anything.” (web)

Rattle Logo

January 14, 2020

“The Famous Atheist” by Clint MargravePosted by

Clint Margrave

THE FAMOUS ATHEIST

had come to town to debate the afterlife.

At the reception following,
my wife and I watched a mob of disciples
rush up to him,
young men and women
in their thirties,
thrilled to be in the presence
of the great man.

Charismatic and as charming
as he’d always been on television,
the Famous Atheist
cracked jokes
about the end of the world,
compared god to Kim Jong Il,
made people laugh,
while reminding them
how religion still poisoned
everything.

As more and more followers
descended on him,
asking for autographs,
pressing copies of his best-selling
book into his famous hands,
telling unsolicited tales of their own
conversion,
giving praise to the man
who had saved them,

the Famous Atheist,
growing tired of their worshipping
his every gesture,
unintentionally
threw up his hands,
and they all bowed.

—from Rattle #37, Summer 2012

__________

Clint Margrave: “My wife and I attended a debate last year between Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, and two rabbis. Big fans of Hitch and hoping to shake his hand, we paid the extra money to attend a reception afterward, only to be punked by an aggressive mob of fanatics, who shoved in and imposed themselves, leaving us on the sidelines feeling foolish and noting the irony.” (web)

 

Clint Margrave is tonight’s guest on the Rattlecast! Click here to watch live or archived.

Rattle Logo

November 9, 2016

“Meursault Gets a Job as an Adjunct English Professor” by Clint MargravePosted by

Clint Margrave

MEURSAULT GETS A JOB AS AN ADJUNCT ENGLISH PROFESSOR

It doesn’t matter if he forgets sometimes
how to speak English,
slips back into French,
because he doesn’t say much anyway,
just stares at the class,
while his mind drifts off across
the Mediterranean
to that beach in Algiers,

or the softness of Marie’s hair,
or how the ocean breeze
once felt on his skin.

“Aren’t you going to pass out the syllabus?”
a student finally asks at the third meeting.

Meursault shrugs.

“It doesn’t matter,” he says,
“but I could if you’d like.”

Another student raises her hand
and wants to know
about his absence policy.

“Absence is the only policy,” Meursault says,
before he kicks his feet up
on the desk and reaches
in his blazer pocket
for a cigarette.

—from Rattle #53, Fall 2016
Tribute to Adjuncts

[download audio]

__________

Clint Margrave: “I currently teach English (at least this semester—you never know) as an adjunct at El Camino College and Cal State Long Beach. The word ‘adjunct’ means a thing added to something else, supplementary and inessential. It’s the outsider status that has always informed my poetry.” (website)

Rattle Logo

November 7, 2016

“Recap of Yesterday’s Tenure-Track Job Interview in English” by Clint MargravePosted by

Clint Margrave

RECAP OF YESTERDAY’S TENURE-TRACK JOB INTERVIEW IN ENGLISH

They asked me for an adjective
to describe myself as a teacher
and I gave them a noun.

They asked me to roleplay
a situation in which I told a student
she would need to retake the class
and I ended up giving
her a second chance.

Then I asked if the water bottle
provided for me
had vodka in it.

Then I referred to the hiring committee
which consisted entirely of women
as “you guys.”

—from Rattle #53, Fall 2016
Tribute to Adjuncts

__________

Clint Margrave: “I currently teach English (at least this semester—you never know) as an adjunct at El Camino College and Cal State Long Beach. The word ‘adjunct’ means a thing added to something else, supplementary and inessential. It’s the outsider status that has always informed my poetry.” (website)

Rattle Logo