Late Dinner  
    James Sallis


It's everywhere, it's everywhere, this
sign of our times. Wherever I go, I travel
with my own irony board, the supermodel says
in interview. Cast off those leg-ironies!
a billboard advises. Mel Gibson is said to be remaking
The Man in the Irony Mask. Dinner tonight
will be McIrony and Cheese, all over the nation
young poets effect a Bi-ironic air, pregnant women
swallow vitamin and irony supplements.
Too many ironies in the fire, Beautiful Friend says,
his face eaten half away by darkness.



James Sallis has produced an impressive body of work. Among his recent books are a translation of Queneau's SAINT GLINGLIN and a collection of essays, GENTLY INTO THE LAND OF THE MEATEATERS; forthcoming books include a major biography of Chester Himes, a two-volume Collected Stories, and two collections of poems: SORROW'S KITCHEN (longer and recent poems) this fall, and BLACK NIGHT'S GONNA CATCH ME HERE: SELECTED POEMS 1968-1998 next spring.


 
 
 
 

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