Jason Bredle
As anyone can see from the picture posted above, and the poems posted below, Jason Bredle is kind of awesome. He's as fun in a face-to-face encounter as he is serious on the page, even (especially?) when he's being sly. The Nepotist is especially fond of contradictions like that, as you, by now, well know. I admire the smartness of Mr. Bredle's poems, their deft distillation of experience into words that are equally experiential, how they are at once funny and entirely sober ("Last year I performed an experiment to learn the effect of every imaginable substance upon my testicles. There are so many things that make me empty."). To paraphrase and re-appropriate a line from Mr. Bredle himself, everything in and around these poems is music.
Thanks, Jason.
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JOFER RANCH
One thing I miss is the spectacle of 7:30. I like riding in the taxi with you because of the way your bare arm brushes against my bare arm. Do you feel the same about me? Tell me what you think of the bananas and cream. Here’s something controversial: I pose for a photograph in front of a statue of a horse with a huge erection. Is innocence only a product of my imagination? I’ve learned that a certain combination of sunlight and wind will cause a person to fall asleep driving. When I wake terrified in the middle of the night, you touch the back of my neck and it goes away. The mere presence of a swimming pool amazes me. It’s one of those days you want to take a neighbor’s cat under your arm and climb to the top of a mountain shaped like Jesus. For once I feel as if I have no burdens. What I fail to realize is that you do. Someday you’ll throw away all your photographs and forget me. Red next to yellow and you’re fucked. Few people have the magic to make everything they say coherently.
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THE FINAL FANTASY
Something I like to do when walking in the rain with friends is yell acid rain and run a few paces ahead of everyone as if my skin is burning. It always gets a solid laugh. In another language my name means "the one with the answers to everything." I'm transitioning away from a lot of things at the moment: human interaction, sanity. One in five will experience it. There's always the chitter-chatter of a nearby squirrel to wield the shank of antagonism into the stomach of defeat. I've had a lot of fun but can't do it anymore. I'm going to shower, take a scented bath, and shower again. I've never walked in the rain with anyone. The only question I want answered before I die is the only question that'll never be answered. Tomorrow will be different. Tomorrow is crazy sock day. Tomorrow I'm going to get the squirrel.
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MOURNING VOICE
Last year I performed an experiment to learn the effect of every imaginable substance on my testicles. There are so many things that make me empty. I've spent so much energy dreaming of someplace else that I'm not even sure where I am anymore. It's like trying to make medicine fun. Real suffering isn't physical suffering but suffering that follows you your entire life. Take the circle, for instance. One day you're at the place and the next day you're not and the next day you've forgotten you'd ever been there. But how did we end up there? How did we take care of that sad, sad night? Everything around us was music. Tiny chandeliers fell from the sky. I'll always remember your shirt as we stood overlooking the bauxite mine, how it drew me into a fantasy, punished me, and then quietly pushed me away.
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About the Poet:
Jason Bredle is the author of three books and three chapbooks, most recently Smiles of the Unstoppable and The Book of Evil. He lives in Chicago.
On the identity of The Nepotist:
I'm curious about the editor's identity, but ultimately, does it really matter? I'm just happy to have been included.
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