Chris King's "Medley of bad guys"

So like I was saying, there will be a poetry performance at Mad Art (2727 South 21st St.) at 7:30 p.m. Monday, January 30 to close The Shape of a Man group art show. The event is free and open to the public. Mad Art will run a cash bar. The reading will last about an hour and be followed by a reception.

The performing poets will be K. Curtis Lyle, Stefene Russell, Nicky Rainey and Chris King (that's me), reading in the opposite order of that list. Leading up to the event, I plan to post a little more info about each of the poets, along with one of their more "manly" poems.
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A MEDLEY OF BAD GUYS
By Chris King

He showed up drunk, a syringe
tattoo turned into a knife. Put out a lit
cigarette on his tongue, like
a guy hit by lightning strike left thirsty
the rest of his life, or wine
country scavengers left deaf by cannon bursts.
He carried cyanide in

his shoes, knew creepy people, figured creepy
people must want to blow up
other creepy people, so sold explosives.
In the joint, he rigged a bed
sheet and magazine, fanned himself by waving
one toe. You gave me a grave.
I made for myself a little open door.

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Florida: she made me chase
a lizard from her house. I should have known right
there. Then, she married the worst
kind of bastard: the kind that can kick my ass

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He was a Cajun screw from
Port Arthur, Texas. Got a blow job, didn’t
feel a God damned thing. Don’t think
you’re owed, now. Just because I got a lot of
shit don’t mean it ain’t all mine.
Kind of guy could never write the novel of
his own life. Why? Because he
doesn’t know how to laugh, cry, at the right parts.

from The Shape of a Man (Intagliata Imprints) (c) 2012

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Chris King is a multi-media creative worker and producer based in St. Louis, Missouri. He casts his poems as 7/11s, a form innovated by the St. Louis poet Quincy Troupe. The Shape of a Man group show was the occasion to publish his first collection of 7/11s, also called The Shape of a Man (Intagliata Imprints, 2012). He has published one previous chapbook of poetry, A heart I carved for a girl I knew (Skuntry, 2006). He serves as creative director of Poetry Scores, which translates poetry into other media. Expected later in 2012: the second movie he directed for Poetry Scores, Go South for Animal Index, and a boxed set of Bascom Lamar Lunsford's Library of Congress recordings, to be released on our national record label, Smithsonian/Folkways.

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At the January 30 show-closer for The Shape of a Man, I will perform poems with Josh Weinstein on double bass.




And I will perform my poems through Noah Kirby's sculpture, With Solid Stance and Stable Sound.



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Also in this series:
K. Curtis Lyle's freedom is the Monster Among Us.
Stefene Russell's manly love song
Nicky Rainey wants to tell us where Leo is now