The Gulf War Phones

SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR
Hello, Spanish-American War.

GULF WAR
Hi, is the War in Afghanistan there?

SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR
Who should I say is calling?

GULF WAR
The Gulf War.

SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR
I'm sorry, the War in Afghanistan is at a meeting right now. He should be back in a half hour.

GULF WAR
LOOKS AT HIS WATCH, CALLS BACK.

GULF WAR
Hello, this is the Gulf War. Is the War in Afghanistan out of his meeting yet?

SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR
Hold on.

WAR IN AFGHANISTAN
War in Afghanistan speaking.

GULF WAR
Hi, uh, this is the Gulf War. I did a performance at your space a few years ago. I was hoping we could schedule an appointment to discuss another one.

WAR IN AFGHANISTAN
Well, the way we're doing things now is, if you send us a bio and any reviews you might have we'll consider it. It's just the way we do things. We don't have to be held accountable.

GULF WAR
Okay, I'll be dropping something off soon.

WAR IN AFGHANISTAN
Sounds good.

Stephen Paul Miller

Compare prices  to buy the books • The Seventies Now • The Scene of My Selves

Stephen Paul Miller is the author of three books of poetry: The Bee Flies in May (forthcoming from March Hawk Press), Art Is Boring for the Same Reason We Stayed in Vietnam (Domestic), and That Man Who Ground Moths into Film (New Observations). An associate professor of English at St. John's University, he is also the author of The Seventies Now: Culture As Surveillance (Duke University Press, 1999), and he co-edited The Scene of My Selves: New Work on the New York School Poets (The National Poetry Foundation, 2001).

You can read his poems online at these places:

• Three short poems are in La Petite Zine, Fall 2001, Issue 8.
• “A Bird on Roller Skates” is in the Avatar Meher Baba collection, Poetry of the HeartMind.
• “Poem for James Baldwin” & “Poem for Noah” appear in The New Journal.
• “Lately I've Been Working As A Model In A Life Study Class,” the piece Miller wrote for music by composer Beth Anderson, is posted at Anderson's Web site.