b y Jim Smith
INSTRUCTIONS
Take a name from Column 1, match it to the correct age in Column 2, and match that to the correct cause of death in Column 3. — Collapse
COLUMN 1
bpNichol; Roque Dalton; Vladimir Mayakovsky; Federico Garcia Lorca; Jack Spicer; Leonel Rugama; Daniel Jones; Arthur Rimbaud; Paul Eluard; Ed Dorn; Charles Baudelaire; Gregory Corso; Pablo Neruda; Joe Brainard; Ted Berrigan; Frank O’Hara; David Aylward; Otto René Castillo; Charles Olson; Milton Acorn.
COLUMN 2
46; 70; 33; 59; 38; 35; 20; 70; 63; 44; 49; 36; 52; 56; 46; 37; 45; 40; 69; 40.
COLUMN 3
a ruptured spleen after being hit by a dune buggy; cancer of the leg; heart attack then diabetic complications; sudden blood loss during an operation; shot during a siege by soldiers; cancer of the prostate; heart attack; complications from a life full of meth; heart failure related to cancer of the prostate; self-inflicted gunshot; beaten to death by fascists; liver cancer; by choice; cancer of the pancreas; alcoholism; shot by members of his own party; by choice; stroke and paralysis; pneumonia from AIDS; burned alive after four days of torture.
Jim Smith is the author, most recently, of Back Off, Assassin! New and Selected Poems (Mansfield Press). He lives in Toronto and is at work on about a hundred different projects.
