It could be said that a poem comes easier than a story, and it's true. Everytime I sit down to write some short stories they come up empty, like I've decided to take a bath and I'm all ready. I remembered my towel, I took off my glasses, I get in with a beer or a glass of wine and then --- the drain stopper is broken, the water drains out. I'm a naked little fish with nothing to write about, just to be frank.

I guess poems are mostly stories. Maybe they are the good parts of the story -- you don't need exposition. They are all the gooey images you pine for in fiction. My perfect poem would be the scene in The Corrections, where that big hunk of fish slips in sweat under the protagonist's clothes as he steals from the market. It would be the part in The Mezzanine; glowing cigarette butts tossed out by truck drivers in the road. Or what about the part in Mother, Come Home where the little lion masked boy looks at the sandwich with one bite taken out of it. These things, these are the things you love about a good story.

These are the things one can love about poetry, coming all at once and full force. A shower of chocolate chips still melty in the middle of a cookie kind of picture, words you can chew on and blow a bubble bigger than your sister, words that get you drunk quicker.

I love stories, maybe I'm just not that kind of writer.