Climax the Clown Goes to See His Therapist

Michael Derrick Hudson

You know we can zap all this stuff away, says the Doctor,

nodding authoritatively. I do wish

it weren’t so easy, protests Climax. He wanted nothing

less than a metaphysical skull full of Liberal Arts thrum,

like the vast and windy imponderables

of John Milton, Beethoven and John Kenneth Galbraith,

a cerebral cortex that’d light up the screen with brilliant

oranges and greens, shimmering for a lifetime

from creativity’s hot flashes. I so want to be off the charts,

complains Climax. The Doctor says maybe. What if more

than anything else I’m afraid of being

explained away? asks Climax, clutching his prescriptions.

MICHAEL DERRICK HUDSON lives in Fort Wayne, Indiana where he works for the Allen County Public Library in the Genealogy Center. His poems have appeared in various journals, including Poetry, Boulevard, Columbia, Fugue, Georgia Review, Gulf Coast, Iowa Review, New Letters, New Welch Review, and West Branch. He was named co-winner of the 2014 Manchester Poetry Prize.