Thomas Fink & Maya D. Mason


from CORDIALLY INVITED


8 

Our beloved pal was
a fucking slob, so dress 
accordingly. The world 
has already met its 

bastard quota; let’s get 
hitched. As dopefiends go, he 
was a rabidly 
traditional one, so 
please attire yourself 

funereally. Our 
daughter having announced 
her engagement, kindly 
respect our privacy 

during this trying 
eternity. Mercifully, 
the casket will be shut, 
as our dear friend was less 
than comely even while 

alive. A patch of years 
so curiously 
inhabited deserves 
not to be forgotten 

immediately. I 
can’t imagine you laying 
a claim to any other. 
Why the hell did our 
publicist display the 

chutzpah to fondle a 
TV in the tub? With 
our mutual adoration 
of horror flicks, we should 

craft our scary ending 
down the aisle. No one 
loved death and dying more 
than our favorite 
thanatologist. We 

know she’d root for every 
soul to achieve their 
misery potential.
I’d rather gag on your 

bas cuisine than endure 
a daily repast at 
Four Seasons. That local 
minister perished 
yesterday in the thick 

of elective surgery 
for mouth widening. Let 
us mourn. . . accordingly, 
eh? Will you do me the 

honor of scowling at 
me until I dissolve.


9

Yes, this is your spouse’s 
wake, but I always found 
you riveting.


Thomas Fink: BEWILDERNESS

Thomas Fink has published 11 books of poetry— most recently A Pageant for Every Addiction (Marsh Hawk P, 2020), written collaboratively with Maya D. Mason, Hedge Fund Certainty (Meritage P and i.e. P, 2019) and Selected Poems & Poetic Series (Marsh Hawk P, 2016)— as well as two books of criticism, and three edited anthologies. His work appeared in Best American Poetry 2007. His paintings hang in various collections. Fink is Professor of English at CUNY-LaGuardia.

Maya D. Mason, co-author with Thomas Fink of Autopsy Turvy (Meritage Press, 2010) and A Pageant for Every Addiction (Marsh Hawk P, 2020) has published in Otoliths, BlazeVox, ditch, EOAGH, Helios Mss, Marsh Hawk Review, Offcourse, and Set. She teaches fine art, and her artwork is featured in various collections in New York and Europe.

 
 

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