Featured Poet: Bill Garvey, Keene
 Bill Garvey lives in Keene, New Hampshire. His poetry has been published or is forthcoming in several journals including Margie, The Worcester Review, 5AM, Slant, Diner, Concho River Review, New York Quarterly, and others. Finishing Line Press published his chapbook, The Burden of Angels, in 2007. Bill received his MFA from New England College in Henniker.
Of his featured poem Bill writes:
The genesis of the poem, "Tampons," came from an actual letter my wife and I read in a small Vermont town. We got there early to see a play at the community center, bought sandwiches and Cokes at the General Store and killed time. A post office in back of the store posted a letter from a soldier in Iraq, next to Wanted Persons. He asked for things we take for granted that make life a bit more comfortable. I read the letter thinking of this kid from Vermont, stationed in some hell hole, hungry for a Snickers bar. When I got to the last item on his list, tampons, and his explanation, the war came home to that little store. I wonder to this day if the soldier worded his letter with intention, to bring the war home as we drink Cokes and move through life as if Iraq were on another planet. Whatever his intention, I will never forget his letter.
Tampons
In our town’s Post Office
I read the letter from Iraq
next to Wanted Persons –
from a Sergeant Robert Diaz
whose list of needs
includes toothpaste, Crest,
he specified, and
toilet paper, any brand,
wet wipes, Snickers bars,
Mach 3 razor blades – the best,
Kleenex, Dial soap, bubble gum…
I stop, squint like a child who
thinks he found the word
that doesn’t fit the rest.
As if to explain, Diaz
wrote, to plug bullet holes.
This poem is forthcoming in Margie/Vol. 7
For more information about Bill Garvey visit:
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