Bretty Hursey 7, Pies in the Face

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading Brett Hursey’s always beautiful and often strange poetry this week.  I know I’ve enjoyed searching out and reading his work so that I could bring it to you.

If you’d like to meet the author, he’ll be taking pies in the face in the name of literature as part of the Oktoberfest celebrations at noon on October 7, 2007, at the Longwood University Campus in Virginia.  Sounds much more fun than a book reading, don’t you think?  The proceeds will help fund Longwood’s literary journal, so show up, pay up, and throw a few pies.

If you’d like to read more of his work, purchase 1 or all of his books:  Some Assembly Required, Dead White Poet (e-book), and Sign Language.  I leave you now with this poem from Sign Language:

A Sadness of Men

The realization stuns him
like a face full of pepper spray —

the woman five steps
ahead is terrified,

sensible-shoeing across the dimly lit
campus, clutching her knapsack

and furtively glancing back
at his two-hundred-forty-pound

silhouette plowing through shadows
like an icebreaker.

Coming to his senses —
the same senses long trained

to smile and look away,
hug at half-strength,

and walk out instead
of returning a slap —

he slows his pace,
creating enough space

to pull himself free of her fear —
a silent accusation

that looms above him
like a cast-iron keel,

crushing an icy swathe
through his shadow.

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