I have a long poem sequence, “Merry-Go-Tats: A Bestiary, A Fable” in the new Dusie, the mega Issue #8 (vol. 2 no. 4) (Click on “download ebook” to the right; the sequence begins on page 59).
UPDATE: You can read Dusie 8 on their site now. Click HERE.
The sequence is the middle section in my manuscript project Smite & Spoon (its latest title) and is my stab at writing a bestiary. The sequence is dedicated to Erna Brodber and her Blackspace in Woodside, Jamaica where the seed and first drafts of the poem began, with nods to Brodber’s novel Myal, Derek Walcott’s poem sequence “A Tropical Bestiary,” and “The Bremen Town Musicians” by the Brothers Grimm.
Coconut Park, the abandoned amusement park referenced, is in Hope Gardens, Kingston and you can see pictures of it in this post from my trip to Jamaica back in 2007.
As for the Bremen Town musicians, I used to listen to old records when I was little, and on a recent visit to my parents’ house relived those afternoons lying on the living room floor with the player spinning when I found the album Meet Tammy & Her Friends which includes “The Musicians of Bremen,” my first encounter with the tale. The album cover was a Barbie-like doll (Tammy) with her friends (Misty, Dodie and Pepper–I think one was her kid sister) dressed up in cheerleader outfits on fake grass. The story was track 12 and a chorus sang this before the story:
Tell me a story
tell me a story
tell me a story
then I’ll go to bed.
You promised me you said you would
I’ve been waiting I’ve been good
tell me a story
then I’ll go to bed.
A woman then narrated with an orchestral accompaniment and every time an animal joined the band on its travels or sang, the orchestra would make a flourish. It’s always stuck with me and something about the animals I encountered in Jamaica flashed my memory back to that record and the story and I knew when I started writing my bestiary that it would be one of the sources.
But enough of my nostalgia. Go check out the new Dusie!