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.