Map Literary: A Journal of Contemporary Writing and Art
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    • Craig Foltz, "Without Stigma"
  • Nonfiction
    • Martha Wiseman, "Loose Ends"
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    • Wm. Anthony Connolly, "IGY"
    • Cal Freeman, "Loosestrife"
    • W.F. Lantry, "The Strange Beauty of the Unfamiliar"
    • Michael Roloff, "Accretion"
    • Andrew Sunshine, "John Hancock's John Hancock"
    • Diane Payne, "3 micro memoirs"
    • Luc Sante, "Flesh and Bone"
    • Isobel O'Hare, "Failure: A Love Letter"
    • Melissa Wiley, "Barbed Wire Fence"
    • Ashley Wilkinson, "fractional distillation"
  • Art
Picture

DAN KAPLAN

+

I never discuss love on an empty stomach.

It's one of those new apartments, wet paint and no telephone yet.

Each piece wrapped in gold paper.

It’s not a very clear picture.

I'd invite you to my bedroom if I had a bedroom.

I always do when we're in session here.

My recommendation is still the same. We’re not talking.

I mention it because the bed doesn't seem like it's been slept in.

It’s something about my face. I have a big face.

It may not be cold enough.

I knew I should’ve served dinner earlier.

I never felt more alive.

I assumed Chicago.

I was wondering if I ought to change.

If you'd give this to one of the attendants in the public lounge.

If I might have a few words of parting.

I doubt if I'll see anybody else tonight.

The skin glow rehearsal’s at noon. 



“[I never discuss love on an empty stomach.]” is comprised entirely of dialogue from Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest (1959).



+

As for now, let’s call it even.

A few beams and birds, respectively.

The cushions have been washed, delivered to the hotels.

There are mailboxes on the streets.

If you can, stay for tea, but explain that you must leave soon.

The teenagers did not study--

they are inside.

Someone from the living room may call out.

May hand someone a pastry.

Night falls in the palms, the stores open around the clock.

The rates of exchange,

the timing could be better.

To make the present and the present

continuous tense. 




Dan Kaplan

Picture
Dan Kaplan is the author of Bill’s Formal Complaint (The National Poetry Review Press, 2008). His poems appear in American Letters & Commentary, VOLT, Denver Quarterly, and elsewhere. He lives in Portland, OR.


published by
The Department of English
College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences
The William Paterson University of New Jersey
Copyright © 2012-2022 Map Literary
Map Literary

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  • About
    • Masthead
    • Submissions
    • Rachel Wetzsteon Chapbook Award
    • NJ High School Writing Contest
    • In Print
    • Subscribe
    • Links
    • Internship Opportunity
    • WPU MFA
  • Poetry
    • Richard Ryal
    • Sherwood Anderson
    • Mark DeCarteret
    • Dennis Hinrichsen Poetry
    • Daniel Biegelson
    • Natan Last
    • Jim Daniels Poetry
    • Michael Chang
    • D E Steward
    • Benjamin Paloff Poetry
    • David Dodd Lee
    • Isabelle Doyle
    • Kathleen Heil
    • Leonard Kress
    • Lauren Tess
    • Cesca Janece Waterfield
    • Billy Cancel Poetry
    • Scott Minar
    • Greg Glazner
    • Bruce McRae
    • Maureen Thorson
  • Fiction
    • On Experimental Fiction
    • Mark Cassidy, "How I Met My Wife"
    • Emily Trachtenberg, "Plum"
    • Hector Donovan-Gonzalez
    • Christopher Linforth, "Zia"
    • Jenessa Abrams, "You Never Wish That Upon Anyone"
    • Eros Livieratos, "On Feeling"
    • Halsted M. Bernard, "Your Hands"
    • Justin Meckes, "The Gash"
    • Reb Livingston, from "Bombyonder"
    • Craig Foltz, "Without Stigma"
  • Nonfiction
    • Martha Wiseman, "Loose Ends"
    • Jan Jolly, "Through My Father's Glasses"
    • Kristina Moriconi, "Still Looking"
    • Wm. Anthony Connolly, "IGY"
    • Cal Freeman, "Loosestrife"
    • W.F. Lantry, "The Strange Beauty of the Unfamiliar"
    • Michael Roloff, "Accretion"
    • Andrew Sunshine, "John Hancock's John Hancock"
    • Diane Payne, "3 micro memoirs"
    • Luc Sante, "Flesh and Bone"
    • Isobel O'Hare, "Failure: A Love Letter"
    • Melissa Wiley, "Barbed Wire Fence"
    • Ashley Wilkinson, "fractional distillation"
  • Art