Description
- Kind: Perfectbound
- Pages: 114
- Language: English
- Date Published: January, 2020
- ISBN: 978-1-948017-67-1
Excerpt
Late Self-Portrait
as Hunchback of Notre Dame
after Van Gogh
His face is bloated from
an excess of alcohol and desire,
all seven sins, on a downcast
afternoon. Work cannot
alleviate the pain of wanting
what isn’t there. He adds
the missing details only
he can see: the hump on his back,
a hissing harelip lisp, a swollen growth
on his neck. His lone good eye
follows you wherever you go.
Author
Alan Catlin is retired from his unchosen career in the “Hospitality Industry”. During that time he worked as a proof checker, crowd control expert, clean up man, the grim sweeper, bartender, college tavern manager, management trainee for a national restaurant, night manager of a chain hotel, banquet bartender and coordinator, night club head bartender, nightclub beverage manager, responsible for ordering, stocking and selling over a million dollars, in 70’s dollars, and finally, both part time night guy, then, full time day guy in an Irish tavern. During his six decade publishing career, he has released countless chapbooks and full length books of prose and poetry. Among those are Effects of Sunlight on Fog (Bright Hill), Self-Portrait of the Artist Afraid of His Self-Portrait (March Street) American Odyssey and Wild Beauty (Future Cycle Press), Blue Velvet (winner of 2017 Slipstream Chapbook Contest), Hollyweird (Nightballet Press), Walking Among Tombstones in the Fog ( Presa Press) and Last Man Standing (Lummox Press).