BURROUGHS IN KANSAS

William Burroughs

BURROUGHS IN KANSAS

CONTENTS 
__________________

CATS
A MAJOR WRITER

COUNTRYSIDE LIVING
MYSTERIOUS SKIN

AMERICAN GOTHIC
GOING HOME AGAIN

THE FLY OVER STATE
ABSURDIST THEATER

KENYON HEIGHTS
THE BRECKINRIDGE HOTEL

RESTORATION
CHOPIN SONATA
_____________

CATS

Being cosmopolitan—
There in that YMCA
Locker-room condo

But as his lover knew—
NYC was no place for
A gracefully aging sage

Ensconced there in—
The countryside outside
The University of Kansas

So much tres better—
Living with all his cats
Burroughs retires gracefully

A MAJOR WRITER

What does it mean—
To be a major writer
In the moody Midwest?

Isolated from the—
Intelligentsia of both
East and West Coasts?

I look to Lawrence—
William Burroughs there
Retired from New York City

Shotgun splatter art—
Making thousands dollars
More than just with books

COUNTRYSIDE LIVING

Photos of Miss Burroughs—
Trundling down through
The Kansas countryside

Totting his shotgun—
Getting off on the privacy
That only Kansas can give

Then making a discovery—
Collage, pastiche and the
Cut-up method too literary

Then shameless fame—
And new literary reputation
Suddenly Shotgun Art

MYSTERIOUS SKIN

There is, of course—
The usual fantasies of
Writers like Scott Heim

“Mysterious Skin”—
Plus the rather dingy
Denouement of hustlers

But Miss Burroughs—
Had already been there
And done that, my dears

Kansas was different—
To him after his intense
Manhattan existence

AMERICAN GOTHIC

Not that I’m complaining—
Grant Wood simply said it all

It’s just the way it is—
Like why fight it, my dears

Like “Nighthawks” (1942)—
By cynical Edward Hopper

That’s how he saw Kansas—
As austere gothic snapshot

GOING HOME AGAIN

How stupid of me—
To even think I could
Ever go back home again

Doing that nostalgic—
“Look Homeward, Angel”
Kitschy literary trip

I've tried it that way—
The usual Narrative schmaltzy
Disappointing Reminiscences 

What makes a writer—
Any different than any obit?
Would somebody tell me?

THE FLY OVER STATE

Of course, there’s the usual—
Quixotic thing one does with
Oneself out there in the country

But all that is somewhat muted—
When compared with all those
Loud freight trains trundling by

That’s when Kansas takes back—
What it gave you back in your
Bildungsroman beginning

Not that there’s any sense—
Being born way down there in
Fly Over State anyway

ABSURDIST THEATER

Keep it short & quick—
Don’t dilly-dally with any
Meaningless meanderings

Let it sink down outta—
Bleak moody skies thru
Tragic twisting Elms

Why fight the loneliness—
Let your branched fingertips
Reach desperately into the sky 

Try to be sympathetic—
With the stark cold realism
Of the rolling sensless Plains

KENYON HEIGHTS

I was born in Newman’s—
Roberta Eckdall’s grandfather
Delivered me back then

On the other side of—
Twelfth Avenue there's
The new Kenyon Heights

That’s where Linda and—
My EHS friends want me
To retire in an apartment

I love Emporia very much—
But I crave the countryside
If I’ll ever get back home

THE BRECKINRIDGE HOTEL

The successful renovation—
Of the lovely Film Palace there
On Emporia’s Commercial Street

The Granada Theater designed—
By the stylish Ballinger Boys
Like the one in Kansas City

Lowther Junior High renovated—
And now the EHS becomes the
New Breckinridge Tourist Hotel

Surely Republican businessmen—
Will flock to Emporia for lucrative
Conventions in the near future?

RESTORATION

Of course, restoration and—
Preservation of Emporia’s past
Is always an ongoing battle

I lived with my divorced—
Mother across the street from
The magnificent Hood Mansion

The same with the church—
Where I was baptized that
Doomed First Christian Church

And the classic YMCA—
Where I fell in love with the
Young hoodlum Arnold Lopez

CHOPIN SONATA

I guess I’m nostalgic—
I can't help feeling that way
Ignore what you’re reading

Just talking with myself—
Thinking about that little
Athens of the Midwest

KSTC charming then—
Vernon Sheffield pianist
Knew how I felt about it

Playing soothing piano—
Sonatas in his apartment
There west of campus