Faulkner and Polk

FAULKNER AND POLK

“There is a blank spot

right in the middle of

where my memory

ought to be”—Noel Polk

OUTSIDE THE SOUTHERN MYTH 

Polk and Picayune—

They’re like anti-memoirs

For me back in the South

I’m not a character—

In these pages and yet

I’m writing about it

Noel Polk & Faulkner—

As well as living down

There in the Deep South

They’re both dead now—

All I have left is memories

Reading them at LSU

There in Allen Hall—

ABSALOM, ABSALOM 

Me as queer Quentin

Faulkner knew me—

 Polk too way back then

In the Viet Nam Sixties

Yoknapatawpha yanked—

Me outta the gay Closet

Deep South Lit saved me