Happy Hour at the Two Keys Tavern : Poems

by Worley, Jeff

• ISBN13: 9780922811717
• ISBN10: 0922811717
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-08-03
• Publisher: Mid List Pr

Summary

As in his first two books--The Only Time There Is, which won the Mid-List Press First Series Award for Poetry, and A Simple Human Motion, published by Larkspur Press -- Worley's fearless, funny, and contemplative poems embody a memory that is attentive to detail, faithful to inflection, and always open to embellishment in the retelling.

Author Biography

Jeff Worley has published two previous books of poetry and three chapbooks. His poems have appeared in many national magazines and journals, and he has received several awards, including the Mid-List Press First Series Award for Poetry, Atlanta Review's 2002 International Poetry Competition Grand Prize, and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. He works at the University of Kentucky and lives in Lexington with his wife, Linda, and their four cats.

Table of Contents

Hair Piece	1	(4)
I
Elegy for an Underwood	5	(2)
On 1-75, Driving Home from My Father-in-Law's Funeral	7	(2)
Lies	9	(2)
Happy Hour at the Two Keys Tavern	11	(2)
First Job, Griff's Burger Bar	13	(3)
Boeing Print Shop	16	(2)
Sleeping with Two Women	18	(2)
Playing Possum	20	(2)
Stuck for an Ending	22	(2)
Some Observations While Recovering from Surgery	24	(5)
II
From a Canister Labeled "Abilene, 1938"	29	(2)
Burnout	31	(2)
The Body Snatchers	33	(2)
My Father with Alzheimer's: First Fall	35	(2)
After a Trip to the VA Hospital Alzheimer's Ward, Tucson	37	(1)
Caregiver	38	(2)
At the Nursing Home: August 15, 2000	40	(1)
The Last Time I Saw My Father	41	(3)
When the Call Came	44	(1)
The Last Joke between Us	45	(1)
His Funeral	46	(2)
At East Lawn Palms	48	(1)
Veterans Day 2000, Tucson	49	(1)
Last Will & Testament	50	(2)
August 8, 2001	52	(1)
For My Mother, on Her Yearly Visit	53	(1)
Phone Call on Father's Day	54	(2)
Here Is My Father	56	(2)
Mid-December, No Snow in the Forecast	58	(3)
III
Joy	61	(3)
On $5 a Day	64	(3)
Soft Landings	67	(1)
UFO Lands in Beatrice, Nebraska; Dog Killed	68	(1)
For Dennis Betz, 1952-1995	69	(2)
For a Newly Divorced Friend Whose Ex-Husband Claims She Stole His Favorite Tupperware Bowl	71	(2)
Cheryl Leigh, I Think Her Name Was	73	(2)
Reminski Strikes Out	75	(2)
Early Evening at Cheapside Bar & Grill	77	(2)
Another Attempt at a Love Poem	79	(1)
Some Jumbled Philosophy: 3 a.m.	80	(2)
Bioluminescence	82	(2)
Ode to My Heart	84	(3)
Acknowledgments	87