Kate Lilley Biography

Porter Wagoner in a nudie suit
flashes the crowd an embroidered Hi!
He kids around trading jokes with the hee-haw,
then the lights go down and the teardrops start.
...

As the plot rocks back and forth on a pinhead
count to fifteen very slowly.
By that time you should be alone again
contemplating your evening.
...

quarto doesn’t last a weak crush lingers
like a festival of moss
the clerk of all passports takes me round
for a drink at a popular nightspot
...

Resentment starts to go backwards in search of a new hermeneutic
the appointment slipped your mind that's no excuse

I'm the kind who'll sit in the waiting room and watch the second hand
for as long as it takes it's something I'm proud of I won't
...

After the dance we cross the oval in pairs
to the steep bank behind the softball field.
The hall is bolted shut, teachers pass in the dark,
smoking and talking on the way to their cars.
It's cold on the ground, my buttons loose to the sky.
...