Index of haunted houses: poems

✍ Scribed by Adam O. Davis

• Publisher: Sarabande Books
• Year: 2020
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 222 KB
• Category: Fiction
• City: Louisville, KY
• ISBN: 1946448672

✦ Synopsis

The Bell System -- The body of New Jersey, 1980 -- Manifest destiny -- Meteorology index -- Nebraskan bribes -- Ghost of Macondo -- Slow city bones -- Spirit arithmetic -- Haunted house, 1780 -- Ghost of Motel 6 -- Extinction days, 1873 -- The mosquito monocracy -- Ghost story, 1971 -- Handshake weather -- Roswell, 1947 -- Ghost of General Electric -- Haunted house, 1978 -- Ghost of Polaroid -- Stetson in retrograde -- Pacific Americana -- Haunted city, 1967 -- Ghost union -- Fever land, 1499 -- Spirit of black Tuesday -- Haunted house, 1980 -- Ghosts of the Bell System -- Haunted house, 1692 -- Interstate dusk -- Ghost story, 1848 -- Ghost of NASA -- Border song -- Eastern standard time, 1890 -- Index of haunted houses -- A house unfit even for ghosts -- National anthem -- Ghost story, 2020 -- Ghost of a ghost story;"This is a book of ghost stories, and for the most part, ghosts are jealous monsters, intent upon our destruction. They never appear overtly here, yet we gradually become aware of their presence the way spirits in haunted houses trod over creaky floors, slam doors, and issue sudden gusts of wind. The poems are Koan-like-the fewer the words, the more charged they are. The engine driving this sense of haunting and loss is money, which Davis describes as "federal bone" boiling around us. Bison in Nebraska are reduced to bones, "seven/standing men/tall" fodder for the fertilizer used by farmers in the 1800s. Though they often specify dates, there's an equality to the hauntings-every instance has its moment, and persists, despite being in the past, present, or future. If there really was a 1980 or 1848 or 1499, Davis implies it is somewhere. Index of Haunted Houses is spooky and sad-a stunning debut, one that will surprise, convince, and most of all, delight"--

✦ Subjects

Ghosts -- Poetry