Richie Narvaez

KNOCK KNOCK
After Hal Sirowitz

Open the door, I need to ask some questions,
the ICE agent said. I have the authority to question,
detain, and only mildly inconvenience everyone inside.
I don’t need a warrant, lady, I’m just doing my job.
You have nothing to fear, seniora,
I’m a friendly guy, trust me. It doesn’t matter
if you can’t see my face. This won’t take long,
then you can go about your life,
whatever is left of it.


Richie's YouTube reading of "Knock Knock"


Richie confesses: "I was inspired to write this poem by the death of my friend, the great poet Hal Sirowitz, and by the current crime-filled state of our government. Note: ICE agents must have warrants signed by judges in order to enter residences. They have been known to fraudulently identify themselves as police officers to get people to voluntarily let them into their residences."

RICHIE NARVAEZ is the author of two novels and two short story collections.

Richie Narvaez

I DIED A THOUSAND TIMES: DEATH #999

I don’t do divorce work, but Mr. Wynant folds his arms under the harsh office fluorescents behind his lawyer speechless with rage, and his sharp-suited lawyer says, “Mrs. Wynant’s going behind his back,” slides a check for 20 times my usual fee at the moment I’m late with rent, car payments, needed new brogues. “Get the evidence so we can nail her to the wall.” Three nights later, my rent, car payment, new brogues tumble out of Le Petite Crevette, holding hands, radiating chaos, giggling. “Got you,” I say, following them, finding and climbing the cold, jangly fire escape outside the paramour’s Bohemian apartment, filming them kissing, cuddling, clasping each other tenderly by the crimson glow of a lava lamp. At the climax of dawn, having secured my rent, car payments, new brogues, I get a six-pack of Old Düsseldorf, go home, celebrate solo. Next day, Mr. Wynant and his lawyer click “Play” and on the screen is a naked middle-aged man in the yellowy light of an incandescent bulb exhorting himself with a well-oiled Smith & Wesson Special. “Oh no,” I say, realizing something new about slippery flash drives, and the lawyer giggling says, “Is that — is that you?”


Richie reads "...Death #999":



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Richie confesses: "I recently re-saw the 1995 film I Died a Thousand Times, and wondered about what each particular death could be. This poem's death was inspired by cameras everywhere. Everywhere.


RICHIE NARVAEZ is the author of the anthology Roachkiller and Other Stories and the urban thriller Hipster Death Rattle. His next book, the YA historical mystery Holly Hernandez and the Death of Disco, is due out this summer.

Richie Narvaez

I DIED A THOUSAND TIMES: DEATH #4

"Mrs. Allagash is here," Violet my secretary buzzes from the outer office, I say, "Gimme a minute," eager to tell my stunningly wealthy client how I’d confronted her husband about his plans to eighty-six her, how in the ensuing brawl I took a kick to the gut, a punch to the ear drum which still rings and rings, how we tangled over a .38, how he took 1-2-3 bullets and flatlined, I say, “Gimme a minute,” eager to tell Mrs. Allagash she was free of her greedy spouse, eager to ask her if she’d like to celebrate, night on the town, she deserves it, why not, I need that minute to check my teeth, shake the weasel, do a few pushups on the floor of the can, fix my satin tie, check for bats in the cave, blow my nose, then march to the outer door, and there’s the nubile widow splendid and platinum, and she raises her gloved hand and I raise mine to shake it, and at the same moment we both see the wet toilet paper pieces left wadded on my fingers. "I...," I say, "Gimme a minute, I..."


Richie reads "...Death #4"



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Richie confesses: "I recently re-saw Jack Palance's 1955 movie I Died a Thousand Times, and it made me wonder about what each particular death could be. This poem's death was inspired by something that happened to a friend, yeah, that's it, a friend."


RICHIE NARVAEZ is the author of the anthology Roachkiller and Other Stories and the urban thriller Hipster Death Rattle. His next book, the YA historical mystery Holly Hernandez and the Death of Disco, is due out in May.

Richie Narvaez

I DIED A THOUSAND TIMES: DEATH #556

For E.A. Aymar

When I woke up this a.m., I didn’t think I was going to have to kill anybody, but some days you stretch a bottle of gin and half a pack of Morley’s, other days you’re at the bank to empty your account & you find yourself stopping a heist-hostage situation before lunch, three gutter punks wearing Hendrick’s Plus-Size Back Seam Thigh-High Stockings™ for masks hollering for the aging patrons and the one turtle-slow teller to get down, shut the hell up. You find yourself Captain Kirk-rolling on the cold marble to come up blasting the leader to kingdom come, pivoting to echo bullets in his partners’ faces. You find yourself in the sudden silence standing akimbo, nodding to no one, then walking away, chest out, unthanked, unloved, unknown because that’s the way you like it, the way I need it. However, there’s one cheerful fellow at the door, his hand up. So I raise my hand to slap it, I deserve it, why not. But he’s actually just waving hi to someone behind me, so I, I pretend I need to tug on my ear just then and keep on walking. The smell of gunfire fresh in the afternoon air.


Richie reads "Death #556":



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Richie confesses: I recently re-saw the Jack Palance movie I Died a Thousand Times, and it made me wonder about what each particular death could be. This poem's death was inspired by a social media post I read by the author E.A. Aymar. Please forgive me, E.A.


RICHIE NARVAEZ is the author of the anthology Roachkiller and Other Stories and the urban thriller Hipster Death Rattle. His next book, the YA historical mystery Holly Hernandez and the Death of Disco, is due out in May.

Announcement

Lineup co-editors Sarah Cortez and Richie Narvaez have decided to step down as their own projects and day jobs have gotten busier. The departure of two editors changes The Lineup's signature editorial process such that I don't know if or when it will continue. Richie was also responsible for the journal's interior layout. If The Lineup were to continue in print, we would need someone with similar expertise.

If this is the end of The Lineup, our editors, contributors, booksellers, and readers can be proud of four years and four volumes of crime poetry (soon to be released as ebooks). For now, as before the first Lineup, I'm testing the waters, seeing if there's enough steam to make something happen.

Here's what I have in mind.

Clips from an Evening of Criminally Good Verse

We were able to shoot video of almost all the poems read at Tuesday night's Cornelia Street Cafe reading with Lineup #4 contributors Jeanne Dickey and Caitlin Elizabeth Thomson and editors Reed Farrel Coleman, Sarah Cortez, and Richie Narvaez.

Below are the videos in chronological order. Click on the arrow icons or the links to play.

Jeanne Dickey - "Desires"
Jeanne Dickey - "The Fat Lady Sings"
Jeanne Dickey - "Red"
Jeanne Dickey - "An Elegy for Susan Atkins" (from The Lineup #4)
Jeanne Dickey - "The Shadow Man Visits a Babysitter" (from The Lineup #4)
Jeanne Dickey - "Dogs of Prayer"
Caitlin Elizabeth Thomson
Richie Narvaez - "Papi Was a Numbers Runner" (from The Lineup #1)
Richie Narvaez - "Metro" (from The Lineup #1)
Richie Narvaez - "Judgment Day" (from The Lineup #1)
Richie Narvaez - "Christ at 13"
Richie Narvaez - "Catching Cupid"
Sarah Cortez - "He's The One" (from The Lineup #1)
Sarah Cortez - "Two Cases..."
Sarah Cortez - "Serial Killer" (from The Lineup #3)
Sarah Cortez - "Poem for a Dying Officer"
Reed Farrel Coleman - "Daddy's Other Shoe"
Reed Farrel Coleman - "The Dying Man" (from The Lineup #2)

Thanks to everyone who participated and attended, and to the cafe management. Visit our Books section to find or purchase copies of The Lineup.

May 31: Lineup Reading at Cornelia Street Cafe

Join us next Tuesday, 6:00 P.M. at the Cornelia Street Cafe (29 Cornelia Street, NYC). Reed Farrel Coleman and Richie Narvaez will be hosting and reading with Jeanne Dickey, Caitlin Elizabeth Thomson, and, in from Texas, Sarah Cortez. Please call (212) 989-9319 for reservations. $7 cover includes a free drink.

Press Release: An Evening of Criminally Good Verse

Presenting an Evening of Criminally Good Verse

Tuesday, May 31st, 6:00 P.M.

@

The Cornelia Street Cafe
29 Cornelia Street
New York, NY 10014
www.corneliastreetcafe.com

Please call (212) 989-9319 for reservations. Cover: $7.


Contributors Jeanne Dickey and Caitlin Elizabeth Thomson join editors Reed Farrel Coleman and Richie Narvaez reading from the recently published fourth annual edition of The Lineup: Poems on Crime.

Published by Poetic Justice Press since 2008, The Lineup invites poets' honest reactions to what they see as crime in fifty lines or fewer.

A limited number of The Lineup #4 will be sold at the reading. Copies may also be purchased locally at The Mysterious Bookshop (58 Warren Street, NYC). Visit Poetic Justice Press on the Web at http://poemsoncrime.blogspot.com.


Reed Farrel Coleman is a three-time winner of the Private Eye Writers of America's Shamus Award for Best Novel. He has also received the Macavity, Barry, and Anthony Awards, and has been twice nominated for the Edgar® Award. He teaches writing classes in mystery fiction and the novel at Hofstra University.

Jeanne Dickey's work has appeared in literary journals such as Passages North, RE:AL, Karamu, and The Good Foot. She is working on a novel, A Fanciful Glamour, which she hopes to complete by the end of the year, if not sooner. An except of that novel is forthcoming in the anthology The Unbearables Big Book of Sex.

Richie Narvaez has had work published by Mississippi Review, Murdaland, and Thrilling Detective, and in the anthologies Hit List: The Best of Latino Mystery, Indian Country Noir, and You Don't Have a Clue. He is the editor of the online humor journal Asinine Poetry.

Caitlin Elizabeth Thomson is a Canadian currently residing in Brooklyn, New York. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in the Hart House Review, Imago, Softblow, The Toronto Quarterly, Neon, Right Hand Pointing, and the anthology Killer Verse. Her first collection of poems The Victims Of Ted Bundy: Washington State is forthcoming this winter from Jeanne Duval Editions.

Richie Narvaez puts out an APB on The Lineup #4

For the eleventh stop on the So Dark For April blog tour, founding co-editor Richie Narvaez pointedly reflects on the tradition of crime in poetry and how The Lineup continues that tradition:

...[E]very poem can be seen as a crime poem. A stolen heart. A broken vow. A shattered reality. Paths are crossed. Conflicts ensue. Emotions recollected afterward. Or every poem might be seen as a criminal act. An act of independence. A rebellion. An assault on some status quo.

Kirkus Kudos for You Don't Have a Clue

My Lineup cohorts Sarah Cortez and Richie Narvaez are also excellent editors and writers in their own right. A review of the teen-oriented mystery anthology You Don't Have a Clue, edited by Sarah and featuring a story by Richie, will run in Kirkus Reviews on March 15th, but already appears on the Kirkus Web site.

Congratulations, Sarah and Richie.

May 31: The Lineup at The Cornelia Street Cafe

The Cornelia Street Cafe will host an evening of criminally good verse Tuesday, May 31 at 6:00 p.m., featuring Lineup #4 contributors Jeanne Dickey and Caitlin Thomson and editors Reed Farrel Coleman and Richie Narvaez.

CrimeWAV 42: "In the Kitchen with Johnny Albino" by R. Narvaez

Friend of The Lineup Seth Harwood invited Richie back to CrimeWAV to read his story from Hit List: The Best of Latino Mystery (co-edited by Sarah Cortez).

Listen to CrimeWAV #42: "In the Kitchen with Johnny Albino" by R. Narvaez.

Partners in Crime

I'd like to think that my involvement with The Lineup started something like this: We were all in a cinematic holding cell one night, after each of us was hauled in on one charge or another (mine might be, say, indecent exposure), and we're all grimy, beat-up, redolent, but somehow we start talking about poetry. Suddenly the idea for the chapbook came up, and we plotted and schemed, doing a bloodswear right there and then (using an unconfiscated paper clip to prick our fingers), then later we met in dark alleys, Irish pubs, and tea houses to work out the details, and that's how The Lineup happened, apropos of nothing.

But, in actuality, I knew Gerald So from his contributions to the silly, satirical web site AsininePoetry.com I edit. And he knew I was interested in crime fiction from a contribution I made to the mag he edited, Thrilling Detective. So, when he asked me to be a co-editor, a consigliere, if you will, on a chapbook on crime poetry, I was intrigued. Very intrigued.

Crime poetry is an interesting and unsung sub-genre of poetry. I thought, with all the writers we both knew, it could be a nice haul, a cool compilation of hard-boiled verse I'd be happy to have my name associated with. Something worth doing time for. What the hell?

But who was So, really, and who were his partners in crime? I decided to do some, ahem, detective work. G, I knew, edited Thrilling Detective, and was scarily prolific. Just check out the credits on his blog. I knew and liked his wry, melancholy poetry, sure, but I found and enjoyed his short story ''Call Me Cupid,'' which has lovely shades of Spillane.

But I didn't know the other two Jakes from Adam. I did some legwork and found Anthony Rainone's biting noir story ''Power of the Gods'' and genuinely liked it. Bagley, I found was apparently known for being grouchy, which I admired and was sympathetic with, and I loved his mean little story ''In the Ditch.''

So these were the mugs I was throwing in with. Good. They obviously knew their way around. It felt good to be along on the caper with them. I just hoped I'd be able to my carry my weight. One funny fact I should add that might be of interest: I've yet to meet any of these good fellas in person. It's all been a machine-gun round of e-mails and postings. I hope one day soon, before a reading and such, we get to huddle around a table in a dark Italian restaurant, maybe in the Bronx, whatever, checkerboard tablecloth, and commiserate and collaborate over alcohol and garlic bread, all the while nervously watching each other, itchy to see who'll go to the john first.