28 May “stilettos in a rifle range” by Tyrone Williams
said switch
so swish
heard, he slid into a pair
of, slipped into an, open-
back heels and dress,
they, following suit,
she, his jacket, shirt,
tearing down the set
pieces, flipped the dinner
party, a three-ring
au pair a trois
staging the blank glint
wine glasses
half raised, lowered
to half-staff,
flagging something
in the airs,
wrinkled with
the stiff whiff
of a flat mistake
aquiline for Roman
knock-off
“It was all a gag,”
they cried, laughed.
About the Poet
Photo Credit: Pat Cray
Tyrone Williams is the David Gray Chair of Poetry & Letters at SUNY Buffalo. He is the author of several chapbooks and seven books of poetry: c.c. (Krupskaya 2002), On Spec (Omnidawn 2008), The Hero Project of the Century (The Backwaters Press 2009), Adventures of Pi (Dos Madres Press, 2011), Howell (Atelos Books 2011), As Iz (Omnidawn 2018), washpark (with Pat Clifford)(Delete Press, 2021) and stilettos in a rifle range (Wayne State University Press, 2022). The poem above is the title poem of his most recent collection.
A limited-edition art project, Trump l’oeil, was published by Hostile Books in 2017. He and Jeanne Heuving edited an anthology of critical essays, Inciting Poetics (University of New Mexico Press, 2019).
Related Event
Tyrone Williams will join poet Solmaz Sharif, along with a musical performance by Plant Water and an art installation by Brandon Watson, at the next Just Buffalo Literary Center Silo City Reading Series event.
Saturday, June 10, 2023
7:00 p.m.–9:30 p.m.
Doors at 7:00 p.m. Reading begins at 7:30 p.m.
About “Poem of the Week”
The “Poem of the Week” feature is curated by literary legacy awardee R.D. Pohl.
R.D. (Bob) Pohl is a poet, writer, editor, and literary and cultural critic based in his hometown of Buffalo, NY. He attended the State University of New York at Buffalo from 1973 to 1981, where he studied language philosophy and philosophy of science with Newton Garver, Charles Lambros, and Peter Hare as an undergraduate, before shifting his attentions to poetry and literature, studying with Lionel Abel, Diane Christian, Robert Creeley, Carl Dennis, Raymond Federman, Leslie Fiedler, and John Logan of the now legendary UB English Department of the late 1970’s as a graduate student.