Joe Wenderoth is the author of Letters To Wendy's (Verse Press, 2000), Disfortune (Wesleyan, 1995), and It Is If I Speak (Wesleyan, 1999). He is Assistant Professor of English at Southwest State University in Marshall, Minnesota.

 

 

 

 

 

July 17th, 1996
 

It feels good to be punched in the face, but only for an instant. This is
what I was thinking as I sat in this afternoon's empty dining room. Then my
mind wandered and I imagined Wendy was in my car with me. She said, "I'd
like you to take your fat tongue and run it from my asshole to my clit over
and over again." I said, "I'd like you to punch me in the face." Thus it
ran, the empty dining room filling.
 

 

 

 

 

February 25, 1997
 

Standing there waiting for fries, me and this older man. He said to me,
"You'd think they had to grow the potatoes!" I replied, a bit too loud,
"Daddy fucked me!" The man seemed angry– I don't think he understood what
I meant. It's as though we were on the same field, playing different games.
He, however, seemed not able to understand that a different game from his
own was possible.

 

 

 

from Letters to Wendy's by Joe Wenderoth, Verse Press, 2000.