The Viper Room

By Craig Cotter

Stuart Sutcliffe’s mom
wrote John Lennon a letter in 1969.

“What does she want?” George asks?

With sympathy in his voice
John says, “Well,
what we all want,
money.”

The generations, though the rest of us are here,
belong to teenagers.

The 30 second peanut commercial
on TV
cost more to produce
than any book of poetry
in the United States.

On YouTube
you can watch Moe Howard
teach pie throwing
on The Mike Douglas Show.

The vocal interpretations
of Mike Douglas
were painful to my
10–year–old ears.

When I heard Paul McCartney sing
as a kid
I thought he was a black woman.