EMPORIA: IN COLD BLOOD

“When we got to Emporia”

—Truman Capote, In Cold Blood

It was easy for me—

To do a non-fiction poem

About our lovely little

Town of Emporia, Kansas

It wasn’t hard for me—

To meticulously get rid of

And eliminate my own

Stupid little crummy ego

That’s because as I—

Grew up there in Emporia

I scarcely adumbrated

Any kind of ego anyway

A Horrible Life

“It’s a horrible life”

—Truman Capote interviewed

in Edmund White’s Sacred Monsters

The interview with—

Truman Capote is rather

Disjointed with Capote

Running off to the bathroom

By then he’s snorting—

Lots of cocaine just to get

 Through any kind of

 Tiresome commitment

Mapplethorpe is there—

To take pictures but soon

Capote says enough and

Shoos him away

Welcome to Emporia

To find the psychic energy—

To write a non-fiction poem

About Kansas takes more than

Just the Pleasure Principle

If one eliminates the Ego—

One ends up with Journalism

And who needs more Trash like

Fox-News already dishes out?

If one’s American Gothic—

Imagination is given free rein

Then things can get Shamelessly

Tedious like a Soap Opera

Commercial Street

I start things off simple—

An opening scene when Dick

Hickcock says to  Perry:

“Well, honey, here we are.”

They’re pulling into the—

City Limits of Emporia for

A quick stop at nice quaint

Haines Hardware Store

To buy some rope & tape

Then they cruise down—

Commercial Street, past

The Presbyterian Church

Across from the Granada

Kress’s Five and Dime Store

Perry tells his Horror Story—

About being in an Orphanage

After a flock of Black Widows

Cross the street at the lights

They nix the idea of wearing—

Catholic Black Stocking masks

It’ll be dark by the time they

Get to Holcomb KS anyway

Emporia business buildings—

Go by as the Killers drive slowly

Past Reeble’s North and take

A left at The Sunken Garden

Night Ride to Murder

Capote moves the story fast—

It’s linear as a Fish Bone &

Its spine follows the highway

Like a road Straight to Murder

Capote keeps it simple—

Simplicity and swiftness is

What he values the most

A style simple to duplicate

Writing is a state of Traveling—

Getting rid of Miss Proustian

Procrustean campy chiaroscuro

And all that vacuous verbiage

On getting on with the Story

Mixed Movie Reviews

Capote’s ”In Cold Blood”—

Got mixed movie reviews in

The Emporia Gazette, Kansas City

Star and the Wichita Eagle

Emporians got irate & upset—

The killers buying rope & tape

There in Haines Hardware Store

For Heaven’s sake in Emporia!!!

The Num getting dished and—

Called Black Widow Spiders by

Nasty nefarious Murderers with

Dick Hickcock always smirking!!!

Emporia Premier at the Granada

The audiences were hushed—

When the hanging scenes came—

Little did they know that Capote

Was actually finally very pleased

Harper Lee was already very—

Famous for “To Kill a Mockingbird”

But the appeals for Capote’s killers

Would go on simply forever & ever

Green with jealousy & envy over—

Harper Lee’s success and fame

Poor Truman had to play the tacky

Crying Game & simply wait forever

Colder Than In Cold Blood

Then with the revealing remake of—

“In Cold Blood” starring the excellent

Look-alike actor Philip Seymour Hoffman

From the film “The Amazing Mr. Ripley”

Comes the Unflattering Portrait of an—

Ingratiating, Overly Ambitions and

Carefully-Conniving-Entrepreneur-Capote

Writing her “Murder Most Foul” Novel

In many ways some Novelists can be—

Even worse homicidal maniacs than the

Worst killers like Dick Hickcock & Perry

Smith, hanging around Holcomb KS