The Perspective Fairy

Henry Fonda didn’t die on you,

he just died. Carol Burnett

says this to Liz Taylor in

a movie so Liz gets wasted

and puts a shopping bag

over her head, or Carol

says it to make Liz

feel better after trying

and failing to kill herself with

a bag. Certainly we all need

a visit from the Perspective

Fairy now and then but you

have to be careful because

not just anyone

can play him.

Ernest Hemingway was summoned

to coax a friend down from a roof

with a cold-cream jar of opium

that Ezra Pound had left for him

with the instruction to bust it

out in case of an emergency—

really if these were the guys

in charge of my safety

I’d take to the roof too—

but when the friend finally

came down, he threw the jar

at Hemingway’s head because he

knew that the real Perspective Fairy’s

got gigantic wings you can

almost see through.