Nin Andrews
Response & Bio
Question 1. What is the difference between a prose poem and a flash fiction?
The honest answer, is this poetry or prose
I never know for what anything is, definitely,
how one draws the lines, say,
between conscious and unconscious,
the world without and within,
how one decides, after all,
what meaning means.
I sometimes ask,
should there be a goverment branch,
a center of control, an editor in the sky,
one who says, or at least knows?
Is this the job of poetry or prose?
Is poetry your god, or god, poetry?
If you had a choice, would you love the god who is?
Or isn't?
Have you ever enjoyed yourself more than is possible?
Who taught you what's impossible?
Who dragged you through the mud like old shoes?
Do you like the old school?
Which one did you attend?
Was it strict, controlled, as patriotic as red, white & blue?
In the diagrammed sentence of your mind,
which were you? Subject, verb or dirct object?
If there were no adjectives, once upon a time,
did you invent a few?
Just so you could drive the slick new cars
down the alleys of your dreams?
Was it all a fantasy or hallucination?
Do you sometimes wake and think
you were never young? Never there?
What seems still true? And why?
Does it scare you, how little it matters?
Are you cautious in the aftermath?
Or do you still speed up at yellow lights?
When you compose your valentine to the world,
what does it say?
I love you forever? Kiss my ass?
Or everything depends on the weather?
BIO
Nin Andrews is the author of several books including most recently Why They Grow Wings. She has two books forthcoming, a book of translations of the French poet, Henri Michaux called Someone Wants to Steal My Name (Cleveland State University Press) and a chapbook entitled Any Kind of Excuse (Kent State University Press).