We No Longer Carry Poetry

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by Melinda Palacio

Thanks to my la Bloga deadline, I composed a new poem on my mother's typewriter.

Last week, I was on a mini Bay Area tour to Moe's in Berkeley, Reader's Books in Sonoma, and UC Merced. At Moe's, I read poetry with Francisco X. Alarcon as part of the Poetry Flash reading series. A few days later, I joined Reyna Grande at Reader's Books. The next day, I was the 34th speaker at the Chicano/a Literature Series at the University of California, Merced.

Owner of Reader's Books in Sonoma, Andy Weinberger with Melinda Palacio and Reyna Grande

Reading with my friend Reyna Grande is always fun. We got into alively discussion, the details which I'll save for another bloga post, on thetrials and tribulations of publishing poetry. Reyna has written fiction andmemoir, but has yet to tackle poetry (I'm sure she will). She was underthe impression that poetry books are easier to sell and publish than fiction ormemoir. To make a long story short, she gave me the assignment to write a poemtitled, "We No Longer Carry Poetry."

I don't recall seeing my mother use this typewriter. She preferred an electric word processor. 

During the week of travel and meeting with readers andstudents, I did not think about my typewriter at Chuck Rodger's Office Repairin Santa Barbara. Over the Christmas holiday, my grandmother had decided it wastime to give me my mother's 'writing machine', a manual brother typewriter.This morning, I picked up the typewriter and put the $80.04 repair fee on mycredit card. I wanted to test out my typing skills and I wrote the first draftof "We No Longer Carry Poetry," for Reyna.




We No Longer Carry PoetryMelinda Palacio


We no longer sell poetry books.No room for Whitman, Langston, Plath, or Espada.Poetry books don't sell as well.Putamayo CDs, music from all over the world, have replacedpoetry books.
We are the first book store with a state-of-the-arte-signing table. Bring your laptop, kindle, phablet, or phone, get a virtualsignature, a germ-free kiss from the author via instant messaging.
Thirsty?                        Stopby our latté experience counter,buy yourself a hot drink while perusing our Best Sellers.
Best Sellers are books you've already heard about by authors you already know, not obscure poets,like the crazy lady pushing her book, sneakingpoetry in our store, confusing our staff.
Lucky you. You've walked into our store, a beautiful spacewithvetted books on every aisle by a bona fide book buyer. We have room for pens, iPhone for Dummies, and GunSafety for Kids.We no longer sell poetry books.


© 2013 Melinda Palacio. All Rights Reserved.




Melinda Palacio is the author of  the novel Ocotillo Dreams and the poetry book, How Fire Is a  Story, Waiting.