Neophiliac
Kevin Brown


And the house will have a cathedral
ceiling, a jetted tub with room for two, maybe
three, walls painted cranberry or cracker
crumbs, in the urban downtown
of a mid-sized city with a lively local

food scene with seasonal squash and leafy
greens, art galleries and museums
with MOMA exhibits every three months,
something from the Tate twice a year.
And you will lounge in lingerie reading hot

literary fiction of the summer
or listening to NPR, moved by the story
of a schizophrenic who graduated from
high school at fifty-three; no kids to cut
off conversations or make us leave

our lovemaking for another day,
another month.  And late at night,
when you are in bed, I will use our wireless
connection to look at listings—a barn
refurbished into a B&B or a flat

in London, how long it takes to become
an architect, or a redhead who promises
to light my life on fire—ignore the lifeless
graying panties on the shower rod, the dripping
faucet a contractor could easily repair.

About the author:
Kevin Brown is a Professor at Lee University.  He has published three books of poetry:  Liturgical Calendar: Poems (forthcoming from Wipf and Stock); A Lexicon of Lost Words (winner of the Violet Reed Haas Prize for Poetry, Snake Nation Press); and Exit Lines (Plain View Press, 2009).  He also has a memoir, Another Way: Finding Faith, Then Finding It Again, and a book of scholarship, They Love to Tell the Stories:  Five Contemporary Novelists Take on the Gospels.  He received his MFA from Murray State University.  You can find out more about him and his work here.