Charade
Melissa Hotchkiss

posted Dec 4, 2007

I’m thinking of Cary Grant in the shower with his clothes on
And Audrey Hepburn, but then I remember, there is another
Audrey, another famous Audrey but what I really mean
Or really think, there is another famous Hepburn
My mind switched the first and last so it’s not
About first and last, but the relationship between the two

You have to work hard for only one of your names to mean something
Like Madonna, or Sade, or Clinton and what are some others...
When you say Washington (even) it could depend on the context
The mind doesn’t bend, only decide and compartmentalize even if we imagine an openness or
     expanse
Structure, even a lack of, represents organization

What am I saying?
I’m saying the person next to me on the #6 subway eating a smelly salami sandwich at 9:48am
     is RUDE
I’m saying you shouldn’t eat stinky food in public moving places
I’m saying the person on the other side of me from Philadelphia (in town for just two
days) wouldn’t necessarily know
     where 65th and First belongs in relation to 59th and Lex

Also, I am saying my first name without my last, or my last name without my first, can just be
     anybody, not somebody
Doesn’t everybody want to be somebody?

© 2007 Melissa Hotchkiss

Melissa Hotchkiss’s first book of poems, Storm Damage, was published by Tupelo Press in 2002. Her poetry has appeared in The Marlboro Review, Four Way Reader, The New York Times, Free Inquiry, LIT, 7 Carmine, Cortland Review, 3rd bed, Gathering of the Tribes, Lyric Poetry Review, Upstairs at Duroc, Diner, and Heliotrope. Her prose has appeared in The New York Times and The New Virginia Review.

She is one of the editors of the poetry journal Barrow Street, and co-directed the Barrow Street Reading Series for eight years. She lives in New York City with her dog Jesse.