I decided orators
when they spoke to the public
did so in bold-italics.
I wrote a book
The Sex Lives of Confederate Generals
and drew from the source material
of diaries written by women
who were not the Generals’ wives—
there was no entry for Robert E. Lee.
It took me a decade to connect
the orator Edward Everett
who preceded Lincoln
at the commemoration
of Gettysburg National Cemetery
to Edward Everett Horton
who narrated Fractured Fairy Tales
and played Mr. Witherspoon
in Arsenic and Old Lace.
I stood on a rock
in a snowstorm
with my head turned upwards
my mouth open
and caught snowflakes
for eleven minutes fifty-three seconds.
copyright © 2023 Kenneth P. Gurney
Umflop 