When I moved to New York I got a job with Nice Titties/Show
Us Your Cock magazine. We were the competition and I wrote
the captions. Whenever the Village Voice used the phrase “post-
modern urban griot deconstruction” I added the words “Nice titties!”
beneath the photo of a b-movie actress wearing a low-cut blouse.
Whenever the New York Times said “Mr. Pynchon improvises
like a jazz musician” I typed in “Show us your cock!” beneath the
shot of a man wearing tight boxer briefs. Life was good. But when
the 21st Century arrived things changed. “Dick” was the new “cock”
and “titties” could never be referred to by the same word twice in an
issue. It was too much to take, so I left the magazine, which folded
three years later, and finally I left town. Whenever someone asks
me what it was like I tell them that it’s something I’ll never forget.
And whenever they show me photographs of their kids I just nod.
—
This is an excerpt from a piece Jose wrote for his blog, Shenandoah Breakdown, called “A Life of Uncontrollable Urges (or Tourette’s and the Writing Life). You really should read the whole post, which has another couple of great poems.
Poetry