Matt Cook’s book has a cover, and this is it. The drawing is by Friese Undine. Proving Nothing to Anyone will be available in March.
Here is a sample poem, which first appeared in the print version of Everyday Genius, in a slightly different form:
My Wife’s Car
I was out for a walk one afternoon
When I saw my wife’s car parked across from the film department.
You feel a kind of existential panic when you see your wife’s car somewhere.
My grandfather said death is like looking at your house from across the street.
It’s probably something like that.You walk past a row of meaningless automobiles,
And suddenly there’s your wife’s car—what do you do?
You can’t just walk past your wife’s car.She had twenty-two minutes remaining on her parking meter.
I have the key to her car, so I decided to wait.I opened the door and sat down in the passenger’s seat.
I knew she’d be happy to see me because we have an excellent marriage.I sat there with the windows rolled down.
I noticed an oak leaf hydrangea in somebody’s front yard.
I never even knew what an oak leaf hydrangea was
Until my wife told me what an oak leaf hydrangea was.Then I saw her in the distance approaching the car.
I was enjoying the situation, the childish suspense.
But then she came closer, and I could see she was crying.
She opened the door and she put her arms around me.
She said, “I’m so glad you saw my car.”
Matt Cook is the author of three books of poetry (In the Small of My Backyard, Eavesdrop Soup, and The Unreasonable Slug). His work has been anthologized in Aloud: Voices from the Nuyorican Poet’s Café, The United States of Poetry, and in Garrison Keillor’s Good Poems, American Places. He lives in Memphis, TN.
For more information, please email books@b83.a58.myftpupload.com.
