______________________________________________________
Things to do in a post Doug Lang DC
be sad Be very, very sad. Worry about Sandra, Phyllis, Terry and Bernie. Worry about Rod
and then. DM Sandra. Text Phyllis. write tom Cry while watching the crane a block away building a
Whole Foods, where Walter Reed used to be. Try to correct a line about regret and failure. text
Leslie. Walk down 9th Street towards Dahlia and start crying. To drink tea. Drink soda. drink red
Wine. Drink coffee. Eat lots of dark chocolate. Cry ugly with chocolate in your mouth.
Read aloud with Ken, Lorraine, Ryan, Sasha and Tom from Dérangé. Hear Ethiopian jazz
with Ken, Lorraine, Ryan, Sasha and Tom. Hear Aldous Harding’s “Horizon” rerun. Cross
Columbia Road on the 18th wears a thin coat against the cold. Imagine Doug standing outside
DCAC smokes a cigarette on the sidewalk. Hallucinate Doug smoking a cigarette
Sidewalk. See Doug’s wrinkled-eyed smile floating across the landscape. Write a line about regret and delete it.
feeling down. I feel damn depressed. Sink into such a deep depression that you don’t leave
the house and consider starting a new political party called Doug Lang’s Party for Psychology
economic upheaval”. Try to remember if such a political party already exists. Listen
Lemonade. Think of death.
be full of fear
be full of fear
be full of fear
be full of fear
Listen to jazz while filled with fear
Walk through Rock Creek Park and murmur that there is nothing to be thankful for. Get teary with me
Gratitude for the sky, the phones, and the scene in Mad Men when Don Draper barks at Peggy,
That’s what the money is for. Choose to pretend Doug just got back to Wales. Scroll
via Facebook looking for posts about Doug. Click the thumbs up, click the heart, click the
crying yellow face. Get obsessed with the real housewives. make soup. make scrambled eggs
Eggs and eat them while watching the real housewives. Sleep. roll over Get some sleep.
Listen to Mulatu Astatke with Ken. hold monkey and cry. Consider tying a piece of rag to a metal
Nut and throw it in front of you to navigate all the way from Takoma to Adams Morgan, eh
they do in stalker. Sip on two double Johnny Walker Reds and have a great time with the poets.
Take two double Johnny Walker Reds and leave before they hit.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Cathy Eisenhower lives and works as a psychotherapist in Washington, DC and is the author of Language of the Dog-heads (Phylum 2001), Clearing without reversal (Edge 2008), would with and (Roof 2009), Distance Decay (Ugly Duckling 2015) and animalitos (Primary Writing 2017). She has translated selected poems by Argentine poet Diana Bellessi and is co-curator of a reading series at Rhizome DC. Her work has appeared in The Recluse, Task, West Wind Review, The Brooklyn Rail and Fence.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Tom Green, Corpus, 1994
More Stories
Kaveh Akbar: Choice of the week [ed. Terence Winch]
Squibs 480-484 [by Alan Ziegler]
The Tears of Antigone: An Astrological Profile [by David Lehman]