$50,000 by Andrew Weatherhead

With $50,000, Weatherhead is a notary of the truth, scouring his cubicle, his relationships with coworkers and friends, and the worlds found in literature, sports, economics, and history for something more meaningful than mere facts. What arises is the pure drama of life: the unrelenting passage of time, the inescapable need to make a living, and the foreboding beauty of numbers, names, and friendship. In hundreds of standalone lines that shuffle like Mike Tyson’s peek-a-boo style, this long poem moves like prose but sticks with all the weight and heft of poetry.

“An aphoristic meditation collaging ‘facts’ (‘Facts are innocent, like flies in a room, not even looking for a way out’) with impressions, images, memories, quotations, passing feelings, $50,000 is one of those poems that could go on eternally—reading it feels like a kind of practice. A soothing book about language, loneliness, uncertainty, and the banal rhythms of existence: ‘I’m trapped in something less than history’ … ‘Our passion for living is not well understood.'” —Elisa Gabbert, author of The Word Pretty

Andrew Weatherhead is the author of the poetry collections Cats and Dogs (Scrambler Books, 2014) and Todd (Monster House Press, 2018). He works in health insurance and lives in New York City.