Lindsay Marianna Walker Commentary

6 Things I think when I think about "The Josephine Game:"

I used to make my parents play this game over and over when I was a kid and we lived near Chicago. Me: "I one the Sears Tower." Dad: "I two the Sears Tower," "blah blah blah" Dad: "I eight the Sears Tower." Me: "You ATE the Sears Tower? Hahahahaha." And every time it was hilarious. It still hasn't gotten old, in fact.

Euchre is a fun game. I wish more people played it everywhere.

Jaime Sabines

In stanza 8 "Slump" = "plums" (anagramish stanza from William Carlos Williams's "This is just to say." I stole it cause I love it.)

I knew a lady here in Mississippi who, during the Civil Right's movement, went down to the polls to vote. She had to "take a test" before casting her ballot. The question the city officials asked her was: "How many bubbles are there in a bar of soap?" Seriously. Needless to say, she didn't get to vote. There were some other crazy ass questions she got asked, but I've forgotten them now, sadly.

If my love life had a footnote it would be stanza 2 of "Variations on a Theme By William Carlos Williams" by Kenneth Koch:

We laughed at the hollyhocks together
and then I sprayed them with lye.
Forgive me. I simply do not know what I am doing.


4 things I think when I think about, "Josephine in the Tower:"

1. I used to watch a lot of Road Runner and Coyote cartoons when I was little - a lot.

2. Once a lady yelled at my little sister for horsing around near the edge of the Grand Canyon. My mom got mad at the lady. I observed the whole scene from a reasonably safe distance.

3. I am fascinated by people who lick peanut butter off the knife.

4. My little gas stove and its hand-sized burners.



Lindsay Marianna Walker is a Ph.D. student in English at the University of Southern Mississippi. A finalist for the 2009 Walt Whitman Award for her manuscript, the Josephine letters, she has served as Poetry Editor for the literary journal, Juked, since 2005. Her poems have appeared recently, or are forthcoming, in: The African American Review, Valley Voices, West Branch, The Southeast Review, Gulf Stream, and others. Winner of the Center for Writers 2009 Joan Johnson Award for Fiction, she has published stories in: Smokelong Quarterly, Pindeldyboz and 971 Menu. Her play "Boy Marries Hill" is included in Gary Garrison's guide to playwriting, A More Perfect Ten.