David Huddle: Villanelle for Lady Day
Billie said, “If I’m going to sing like someone
else, then I don’t need to sing at all.” Let’s
just say I was white and knew how to conform.
David Huddle: Parable of My Family’s Artistic Impulses
My father, affectionately known
by his sons as Doodles, took up painting-by-the-numbers.
His vision of blue jays hung over the toilet to be
reckoned with by any urinating male.
David Huddle: Parable of the Same Scene Every Day for Years
Consider my mother gazing out her window
over the kitchen sink as she washes breakfast, lunch,
and dinner dishes for fifty-some years.
David Huddle: Parable of the 4 a.m. Demons
My mind yearns for sleep so innocently it refuses
the perverse truth…
David Huddle: The NRA as the Official Mascot of the USA
Stupid is the word for a nation
that enables this atrocity five times
a month.
David Huddle: Bliss Happens
It’s talk that charms the heart. I’ve had it in real
life–folks who conversed with me the way Armstrong
and Fitzgerald sang duets.
David Huddle: Collusion
Ignorant high school bully that he is,
our fake President tweets out a nickname
for anyone who thwarts or critiques him–
those who care about decency or ethics
or just basic intelligence.
David Huddle: The Watermelon Sutras
In the act of eating watermelon no one
ever pulled a trigger, spoke harshly
to a child, swatted a butterfly out
of the sky, or told a lie for money.
David Huddle: She and My Granddad
Granddad–at war with Grandmama all
my life but drawn to women, always polite–
would have said, Yes ma’am, can’t nobody run her.
David Huddle: America Gave Us
Walt Whitman, Langston Hughes, Louis Armstrong Abraham Lincoln, Barrack Obama, Edward Hopper, Georgia O’Keefe, Frank Loyd Wright, George Gershwin, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan. . They would have achieved greatness anyway, … Continue reading
David Huddle: My Presidents
The nation formerly known as the United States of America has revealed its new name –– Trumpiana Unum Aeternitas. —Fox News, June 22, 2022 . Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, … Continue reading
David Huddle: Box of Rocks
Exactly what kind of rocks are in that box our buffoon of a leader is allegedly dumber than, because certain mineral deposits–say those that contain fossils of prehistoric forms of … Continue reading
David Huddle: Is Nothing Sacred?
The bunny that dashed across our street just before dawn this morning–a fast moving rabbit shadow that crackled with holiness for two blinks of my eyes. In Bruce Springsteen’s “Growing … Continue reading
David Huddle: Composition as Ethical Inquiry
A man who has faith, intelligence, and cultivation will show that in his work. –Walker Evans I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they’ve always … Continue reading
