That fourth episode
We Interrupt this Program
to bring you John Cheever
the one with the magic t.v.
A well-meaning husband
frustrated, suburban
a middle-aged husk
(a real shell of himself)
puppeteered by his
magic wife’s
traumatized id.
Dick York sweat moxie
in buckets backstage
so Dick Sargent could mop
up the floor
and Vision could dance on the strings.
Orbison sings for the lonely,
Anderson’s out in the field,
Cheever and Lee herald Galactus
the doe panteth for water,
the stag to be lost in the stream,
the AI of classic t.v.
and the funnies
and serious writerly tropes
(the singularity I have long prayed for)
is here.
Chris Cocca’s work has been published at Hobart, Brevity, Perhappened, Rejection Letters, Schuylkill Valley Journal and elsewhere. He lives in Pennsylvania, patiently awaiting Belsnickel.