This is a cool poem from The Boston Review - the idea of a perspective fairy, kind of like the tooth fairy only more disconcerting, is a great premise. One could do a whole poem cycle on that idea.
The Perspective Fairy
Henry Fonda didn’t die on you‚
he just died. Carol Burnett
says this to Liz Taylor in
a movie so Liz gets trashed
and puts a shopping bag
over her head‚ or Carol
tells Liz this to make her
feel better after trying
and failing to kill herself with
a bag. Certainly we all need
a visit from the Perspective
Fairy now and then but you
have to be careful because
not just anyone
can play him.
Ernest Hemingway was summoned
to coax a friend down from a roof
with a cold–cream jar of opium
that Ezra Pound had left for him
with the instruction to bust it
out in case of an emergency—
really if these were the guys
in charge of my safety
I’d take to the roof too—
but when the friend finally
came down‚ he threw the jar
at Hemingway’s head because he knew
that the real Perspective Fairy’s
got gigantic wings you can
almost see through.
This poem is part of BR’s special package celebrating National Poetry Month.
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