I was going to say No
but I said Art!
I don’t know why.
It was in answer to a yes-or-no question.
Did we pay our taxes on time last year?
or, Are we out of lightbulbs?
Art!
Do you like peas?
It depends on the Art.
Do you feel better today?
I feel Art.
This is the sort of answer that requires further explanation.
I don’t have one.
Art!
Maybe it’s a word without specific meaning.
A dog’s bark.
What it means depends on context, accent, mood, emphasis,
presence or absence of wag.
Do you have a dollar I could borrow?
Are you going to vote in the election?
Do you like mysteries?
Can you speak another language?
Art.
Art!
Art! Art!
Art! Art! Art! Art! Art!
***
Glenn Ingersoll works for the public library in Berkeley, California. His reading & interview series, Clearly Meant, is currently on covid hiatus. The epic prose poem, Thousand (Mel C Thompson Publishing) is available from bookshop.org, and as an e-book from Smashwords. He keeps two blogs, LoveSettlement and Dare I Read. Other writings have recently turned up in ubu, Mercurius, and Unlikely Stories.
***
image: MM Kaufman
Rejection Letters 