Daniel McGinn
Bob Dylan: 1964
Dylan speaks to reporters with a cigarette
squatted on his pointy lip.
The reporters are high on scotch and nicotine.
His cigarette bounces between his fingers.
He flicks an ash, looks away, puts a thumb to his temple
like a Dutch boy to the dyke.
The sun comes through the window to catches Bob’s smoke
mid-air.
The reporters ask stupid questions.
They pull out pencils and notepads.
Dylan stares at them.
His face is pale but he looks new.
Bob hooks a thumb in the suspenders of his farm-boy pants.
He chews a stalk of rye.
He answers their questions in grayscale.
His crumbled wit is dry.
He has coal-dust behind his ears.
His voice rides down a slow switchback trail
on a graveled American mountain.
Daniel McGinn's work has appeared in the OC Weekly, Next Magazine along with several anthologies and publications. His full length collection of poems, 1000 Black Umbrellas, was published by Write Bloody Press. He is currently a student in the low residency MFA program at Vermont College of Fine Arts. He and his wife are natives of Southern California. They have 3 children, 5 grandchildren and a very good dog.
Bob Dylan: 1964
Dylan speaks to reporters with a cigarette
squatted on his pointy lip.
The reporters are high on scotch and nicotine.
His cigarette bounces between his fingers.
He flicks an ash, looks away, puts a thumb to his temple
like a Dutch boy to the dyke.
The sun comes through the window to catches Bob’s smoke
mid-air.
The reporters ask stupid questions.
They pull out pencils and notepads.
Dylan stares at them.
His face is pale but he looks new.
Bob hooks a thumb in the suspenders of his farm-boy pants.
He chews a stalk of rye.
He answers their questions in grayscale.
His crumbled wit is dry.
He has coal-dust behind his ears.
His voice rides down a slow switchback trail
on a graveled American mountain.
Daniel McGinn's work has appeared in the OC Weekly, Next Magazine along with several anthologies and publications. His full length collection of poems, 1000 Black Umbrellas, was published by Write Bloody Press. He is currently a student in the low residency MFA program at Vermont College of Fine Arts. He and his wife are natives of Southern California. They have 3 children, 5 grandchildren and a very good dog.
