poem: A weekly poem, read by the author.

"The Man I Killed"

By David Thorburn
Updated Tuesday, March 28, 2006, at 5:15 AM ET

Click here to listen to David Thorburn read this poem.


was in his early 30s, rosaceous,
pocky, the Checker
on a Newark pier. He said

I'll be respected
by Jersey turds
like you reporters

and these Hoboken wankers
still wearing bog shit.
Don't you get it?

I said No pictures.
Later, off the wharf
the camera guy

used a telephoto lens
as I pointed, for my byline story,
Wildcat Strikers

Shut Port Newark.
The next week they found him
floating near a buoy

dead in Bayonne harbor
in a mess of bootleg whiskey
and my story in the paper.

Print This ArticlePRINTDiscuss this in The FrayDISCUSSEmail to a FriendE-MAIL
Share on FacebookPost to MySpace!Share with MixxDigg ThisShare with RedditShare with del.icio.usShare with FurlShare with Ma.gnolia.comShare with SphereShare with Stumble Upon
David Thorburn is professor of literature and director of the Communications Forum at MIT. His most recent books, co-edited with Henry Jenkins, are Democracy and New Media and Rethinking Media Change.
For Slate's poetry submission guidelines, click here.

Click here to visit Robert Pinsky's Favorite Poem Project site.
Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum
What did you think of this article?
POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES