About the Poems - JH
About the Poems
by Joe Hall In Spring 2008 I walked around the neighborhoods near Catholic University and perceived new things because I was cut in half and I grew eyeballs from where the cleft was and at the ends of the things I was dragging along. I would go to the crypt of the National Cathedral and look at what was left of all the Virgin Mary's there after they were cut in half and cut in half again. Amazing. You couldn't pray to them all. Or at least I didn't see anyone try. There were nuns g-chatting in the theology reading room in their cool nun sneakers and dudes in mesh shorts. I drank instant coffee in the shrine cafeteria which was like a public school cafeteria except for the coffee. Things felt bouncy. I found myself thinking about Chuang Tzu. The following summer, when I had to drive there I found out that they're pretty good about giving change for the meter in the gift shop. By that time my status as cut in half or not cut in half was irrelevant and I felt pretty silly for being like that.