Starting with the title “lol.thx texas i will never love again.” Willis Plummer sets up his poem as absurdist and sad, as in recognition of the emotions being painful and, in the end, pointless. A stance of defense against a heart and illusion broken, but it’s a joke.

There aren’t many words, but I enjoyed them. He writes:

“LIVING UNDERWATER IS

IMPOSSIBLE BUT I AM

GOING TO TRY, SO HELP

ME GOD.”

Which, I remember my last unrequited love, feeling like I couldn’t breath, and it seems the “Living Underwater…” sounds like a Beatles song, or what the fuck is that song? “Living is easy with eyes closed.” Is that Strawberry Fields? Yes.

He writes:

“I AM UNDERWATER

LOOKING UPWARDS.

THE BLUE PORCELAIN

TILES ARE SHIMMERING,

AND I AM THINKING OF

YOU.”

Which is really pretty and shiny and speaks to the delusion of unrequited love. Then he is on a plane for a stanza, all up this point in the 1st person.

Then the last page he switches to the 3rd person and writes, more in a prose style, in one long sentence about kissing, being sticky, then “he” not knowing in a week they won’t be speaking again.

And that’s it. A short romance, maybe long distance. One with bliss and attachment and being underwater in bad and good ways. And then the author feeling like he can’t breath, but feels this emotion is, if not temporary, not as serious as it is actually, thus why he started with “lol” in defense and relization that this lost romance wasn’t even that important.

Willis Plumber lives NYC, and based on his facebook it appears he has worked with Village Voice. Here is the link to “lol.thx texas i will never love again.” He may blog somewhere, but I’m not sure where.