Maurice Oliver’s Comments

When I write I try to stick to a certain style and a set of particular formats. My poems will usually have either a political and sexual theme and in both cases it will likely be subtle. In “Beauty vs. Bedsores” I try to mock a casual pick-in, poking fun at both parties involved. Each one is trying to be cleverer than the other but the endgame is under the sheets. In “Utopia, Lip-Synching the Words” I create a scenario of nonsense. Poems like this one are intended purely to entertain the reader while doing a decent job of confusing them. “Howl. Yell. Scream. Or Whimper” pokes fun at the popularity of nuptial agreements while “A Comic Strip Just Out of Rehab” points a satirical finger at celebrities in trouble with the law. “A Document Unraveled By Butterflies” uses a real-life trip to Venice as brushstrokes on a silly canvas. The poems are meant to be lighthearted and easy to digest. And they should never leave an aftertaste or your breath smelling like alcohol.