ALPHA KAPPA LAMBDA

SENATE APARTMENTS

It all seems so coincidental—
so synchronicity sexy

The way I fell in love with this—
handsome AKL fraternity stud
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He took me to Kansas City—
a lot of the KSTC guys 

Came from there because—
it was easy to get into Emporia
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The Teachers College & C of E—
that’s where they sent them

The parents of highschool guys—
who couldn’t make it big time
________________

They ended up in Emporia—
wise-guy cosmopolitan studs

Their way of dealing with it—
joining a racy drunk fraternity
_______________

I fell in love with this guy—
he was drop-dead handsome

He took me back to Kansas City—
fucked his girlfriend in front of me
________________

Smirked when I got weak—
falling to my abject knees

Got me to do all his homework—
just to fuckin be around him
__________________

I hung around the AKL House—
playing pool and cruising guys

The Kansas City cocks were like—
much more sexy & sophisticated
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He got killed on the highway—
up by Allen after he got married

Coming down from Topeka—
getting his Masters in Psychology
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He fell asleep at the wheel and—
wrecked his VW completely

His beautiful body there on the—
cold concrete stupid highway
________________

Later when I came back to town—
the AKL Fraternity had moved 

Kitty-corner across the street—
from my Constitution St home
_______________

The Senate Apartments—
the new home of young meat

Jaysus christ the seminal vibes—
comin outta that fuckin joint!!!!
___________

It’s like his male vibes—
were still alive & needed it

Knowing that was my home—
zeroing right into my psyche...

Kansas Poet Laureate

KANSAS POET LAUREATE

Well, my dears—
surely it’s time for KANSAS

In all its SUNFLOWER Majesty—
and WIZARD OF OZ Grandeur
___________

With all its golden WHEATFIELDS—
and stuffed glutted Grain Towers

Its melodious Meadowlarks singing—
its wondrous Tall Grass prairies
_______________

Yes, let’s include even Lawrence—
hotbed of William S. Burroughs

With all his NAKED LUNCH porno—
and unforgivable love of CATS!!!!
_______________

I mean really if Independence KS—
can possibly tolerate that faggot

Miss William Inge there in his naïve—
hometown Community College
_____________

Well, then surely it’s time my dears—
for the astute FLY OVER STATE

To finally bestow its esteemed—
POET LAUREATESHIP on ME
________________

First KANSAS Faggot Poet Laureate—
surely I certainly qualify, my dears

To poeticize and pontificate the—
usual SUNFLOWER STATE hype?

Peter Pan

PETER PAN PARK

Up the staircase—
with my flashlight

Past the library up into—
the inner sanctum above
___________

She was full of memories—
it’s all she had left back then

She told me about when—
J. M. Barrie came to town
_______________

WAW greeted Barrie at the—
Classic Old Santa Fe Station 

With the high school band—
playing the welcome songs
__________

Dedicating Peter Pan Park—
to the great British playwright

A Lake, an Amphitheater—
even a Monkey Island 
__________

Duplicating Hyde Park there—
in London where Miss Barrie

Erected her statue overnight—
to the Youth he loved 
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The same with WAW—
worshipping his daughter

Whatever WAW did—
he did simply FIRST CLASS

Red Rocks

RED ROCKS

They gather on the front porch—
on lovely Sunday summer afternoons

They pretend to reminisce quaintly—
about their small town literary legacy 
_____________

They sigh and relax in the afterglow—
of delicate Kansas memories

How the bourgeois love to pretend—
to surely be above it all
______________

The shabby decay and deterioration—
of their little Athens of the Midwest

The former little college town down—
by the Santa Fe Railroad tracks
_____________

The Home of Twinkies and Tackiness—
Iowa Beef and Tyson Chicken Factory

Now the Burlington Railroad doesn’t—
even slow down shipping its freight thru
________________

The classic old Train Station burned down—
Commercial Street now a Ghost Town

The renovated Granada Theater moody—
reminiscent of SUNSET BLVD days
__________________

And so the Kansas literati gather there—
worshipping at the Red Rocks Temple

Little do they know that Mary White—
haunts the attic up there all alone

Alone in Kansas

ALONE IN KANSAS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTqbTP5qy7k

When did I realize it—
that I was lost to the world?

Even though I fled the Midwest—
all the way out to the West Coast?
_____________

Was it when I came back to Emporia—
for my mother’s funeral?

One look at the mourning crowd—
gathered in Robert Blue funeral home
____________

And I left knowing I was totally—
completely alone now for sure

Then at the Fiftieth Reunion of my—
EHS class when I was there but
___________

Decided to spend the day instead—
sitting by the Cottonwood River

Knowing that I came alone into—
Kansas and that I’d leave alone too

We Disappear

WE DISAPPEAR:
LESBOS IN KANSAS

—for Vina Hillerman, Mildred Kaff
and Elsie Pine
_________________

“The little girls who found the body
of the missing boy were not angels,
although that is how the newspaper
described them, the following morning,
beneath the headline. They had no
haloes or transparent wings. They
had no heavenly warmth or sweet,
scarless faces kissed individually by
God.”—Scott Heim, WE DISAPPEAR
_______________

They found me there in Emporia—
Vina, Mildred and Elsie Pine

They were my Lesbos Mentors—
my Glinda Fairy Godmothers
______________

They took me under their wing—
made me aware of myself

Protected me from the bullies—
encouraged the gay spark
_______________

Knowing that little Emporia—
was no Athens of the Midwest

It was just a Santa Fe Cowtown—
out in the middle of nowhere
_____________

Not the place, honey, for nelly—
little cowboys like yours truly

Straight outta little Emporia—
Escape from the Flyover State!!!

The William Inge Seance

THE WILLIAM INGE SÉANCE  

The 32nd annual William Inge Theatre Festival at the Independence William Inge Center for the Arts at Independence Community College, Kansas, May 1-4 2013
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"Playwright — Author — Homosexual"

William Inge was a true professional entertainer that took pride in what he presented. A serious playwright gifted with GAY sleight of hand, he could perform miracles on stage as well as right under the noses of a closely gathered heterosexual spectators.

With four consecutive Broadway hits, a Pulitzer Prize, and an Oscar, William Inge was one of the top dramatists of the mid-20th century.

A still-unmatched record of four consecutive Broadway hits in Come Back, Little Sheba (1950); Picnic (1953); Bus Stop (1955); and The Dark at the Top of the Stairs (1957). They are best known to audiences today through their entertaining if not completely faithful film versions; Inge didn’t get to do the adaptations. He did, however, write directly for the screen, and he won an Oscar for his original screenplay for 1961’s Splendor in the Grass, which starred Natalie Wood and Warren Beatty and was directed by Elia Kazan.

Inge’s experience had been garnered by performing as "closet-case magician" at various theaters...and by demonstrating his skill at private parties, banquets, corporate events and other social functions.

His material was "straight" as well as both humorous and nostalgic, maintaining his heteronormative  bookings primarily through word-of-mouth gossip and deceptive advertising.
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INGE: I’ve returned tonight. From the other side…

MADAME SOSOSTRIS: Welcome, William.

INGE: Welcome? I always hated Independence.

MADAME SOSOSTRIS: But, my dear!!!

INGE: I hated Broadway and Hollywood, too!!!

MADAME SOSOSTRIS: But, William! We’re having the 32nd annual William Inge Theatre Festival here at the Independence William Inge Center for the Arts at lovely Independence Community College, Kansas.

INGE: Are you kidding? Most of the town citizens hated my guts, objected to the Center because of my homosexuality and fame. I despise them all.

MADAME SOSOSTRIS: Ladies and Gentlemen. This concludes our séance with the ghost of Miss Inge tonight. Please forgive me. I’m having an attack of acute Occult Paranoia with the Nelly Spirits tonight. Turn on the lights!!! Let’s get outta here!!!