ON THE BEACHby Ramon Montaigne
Children playing on the beach,
Mad dogs running off the leash.
Babies eating small mudpies,
Poison puddles in disguise.
Surfers paddling out to sea.
Are there sharks? There well might be.
Children walking to and fro.
Are they wearing sunscreen? No.
Men who go without long pants or
Shirts are asking for skin cancer.
Naked women soon will be
Sent to chemotherapy.
Food left sitting in the sun,
Salmonella has begun.
Young girls talking to strange men
Who yesterday were in the pen.
The days get hotter,
Near the water
Here in Sodom.
Thank God for autumn.
* * * * * * * *
Two whimsical poems by Ramon Montaigne ("On the Beach" and "Unification") have recently been featured on The Writer's Almanac with Garrison Keillor. I really enjoy both of these poems, so I went online to see if I could find out more about the poet and maybe find a book of poetry. Instead, I found a mysterious void. Nothing on Amazon. Nothing at Wikipedia. Nothing at the Poetry Foundation. Nothing on Google searches. Hmm.....
I sent an email to The Writer's Almanac to see if they could help me out. I also sent a note to Keillor's bookstore, Common Good Books, to see if they could help me. If you know anything about this writer, or have any suggestions for how I could get more info, I would appreciate hearing from you.
Thanks.
Mysterious pen-name? Ghostwritten? I am intrigued as well!
ReplyDeletePen name for Garrison Keillor. The author appears also as a (non) character in this episode of Guy Noir's show:
ReplyDeletehttp://prairiehome.publicradio.org/programs/2012/10/06/scripts/noir.shtml
I suspect we will soon have the book published.
Thank-you, Justafed. That made my day!
ReplyDeleteThanks. I use The Writer's Almanac as a major source for finding poets new to me and this amusing pop popped up early August, 2020 w no bio. Appreciate that someone else has done some homework.
ReplyDelete