The Sunday Paper by Allan Kaplan

The Sunday Paper

The drama reviewer on addressing the blank page
as the midnight deadline approaches
“Fake it, sweetheart.
One squeal
would embarrass us.”
 
Interviewing the plumber who found $10,000 in a paper bag
“Stan, what did you think when you found
that hand decomposing in all that moo-lah?”
“Finger itch is gone.”
  
Editorial: Flynn’s Kindness to Animals                                 
After dragging Flynn’s cumbrous projects
through the city council, our donkey
nibbled on the sweetest corn in Flynn’s bin.
 
Obituary: the Italian Tenor Guido Santorini 85
Those familiar jowls joggling,
his comic aria soared to the upper balcony.
His wife recalls, “Guido’s sly wink at God.”
 
From Professor Adamson’s column of historical trivia 
Spying his student weeping in the crazed mob,
Jean-Paul, a wry scholar from Province, quipped,
“The fresh root of headless will be my head.”

About the Poet
Allan Kaplan spends much daytime alone writing and revising, or watching endless late night movies with his wife. His books include Paper Airplane (Harper & Row) and Like One of Us (Untitled). His poems appeared in journals of various persuasions over the years; i.e.  Poetry, Apalachee Quarterly, Paris Review, Iowa Review, Quarterly Review of Literature, Washington Square Review, Barrow Street, Wind, Folio, Gulf Stream, Widener Review, Nimrod and Bad Penny Review.