ED ASNER
“...style...”
Grind me Nautica, Vic Tayback.
Line chef para Alice arm hair,
fore-sausage & anchor tat,
snatch, a silvered chest, V-
neck, sleep hard Weezy—
Zebra-Jive-Turkey.
As in how do you do that?
Glimpse, a tad, pecking
the surface glaze, or Dove
Men+Care. iNot be puppy breath,
tan streak down the cheek, scar,
or Bowie’s bass: VANILLA ICE
tricks a pompadour. Jim Carrey
a detour, when slips the tongue.
Airborne pellet in seltzer fizz. ED—
father had a junk business...barrels
of jimmied pistols...they wouldn’t fire
...but they were good for kids.
Copyright © 2019 by Ronaldo V. Wilson. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on August 27, 2019, by the Academy of American Poets.
"‘Ed Asner’ is from a cycle of poems that explores a kind of quotidian whiteness, as expressed through North American (U.S.) 70s televisual and current pop iconography as influence. The poems are intended to act as sonic, sculpted responses to questions of memory and desire. Between modes of critique and play, I enact this work as a means to explore race, gender, power, and representation.”
—Ronaldo V. Wilson
Ronaldo V. Wilson
