Polk County Death Parade

There are four main topics that drive conversations in small towns: births, weddings, deaths, and rumors. In my hometown, in the dead-center of Florida, most rumors revolve around strange deaths and murders. This fascination with the grotesque serves as the focal point of my manuscript. However, I also want to explore different characters who are either members of the "Rumor Mill" or subjects of their whispered meetings, as well as describe significant landmarks, which will increase the realism of the manuscript, despite the absurdity. Throughout my project, I examine what makes "my own little postage stamp" of the world, to borrow Faulkner's phrase, unique through descriptive poems of the area, persona poems for the characters, and poems focusing on the most intriguing deaths and murders. My manuscript, tentatively titled Polk County Death Parade, explores the misunderstood aspects of small towns in central Florida. The town that serves as the focal point for my manuscript appears to be a perfectly normal town with picturesque houses, churches every quarter mile, and people unafraid to walk at any time of day. However, my manuscript challenges this idyllic surface. I explain the reality of my town by dissecting the landmarks, characters, and strange deaths that serve as fodder for the rumors and local legends. I want to create a tone that falls between The Twilight Zone and Mayberry, with nods to David Lynch and Flannery O'Connor. To achieve this tone, I will incorporate lessons from both poets and fiction writers to help me create the narratives and descriptions that accompany voice driven murder stories. I admire Billy Collins' approach to dark topics with a light tone, Flannery O'Connor's hyper-realistic characters, and Andrew Huggins' connection to regionality. I also want to incorporate Dorothy Allison's belief in treating all of her characters with respect, never writing as if they are lesser people even if their actions are reprehensible. Similarly, I want to follow Larry Brown's lead in creating places, characters, and voices that sound, if not familiar, then at least honest, for readers in and out of the South. Although not all of my poems will be focused on characterization or will be persona poems, my goal for this manuscript is to be a Southern counterpart to Edgar Lee Masters' Spoon River Anthology. The town and people are based on my own experiences or rumors I grew up hearing, but fictionalized just enough to enhance the natural strangeness. This exploration into small town life will illustrate the universality of searching for humor in dark situations, explore a natural fascination with the grotesque, and a guilty pleasure found through the creation of local legends and rumors. While the characters, places, and actions are unique to the manuscript, the themes, emotions, and situations stretch well beyond the city limit signs. Readers do not have to be intimately familiar with Southern small towns to connect with the characters, create an image the town for themselves, and become invested in the murders. I illustrate snap shots of humanity and explore experiences that, while specific to my town still connect with people who have never lived in a small town. Deaths, murders, and questionable characters serve as common ground between my manuscript and a wide readership. Rather than limiting the reach of my project, the intimate connection to region helps to illustrate commonalities of the human experience of dissecting the strange and unusual experiences of their own hometowns. There are three major types of poems which make up my project, which will be a singular piece without sections or chapters. The majority of the manuscript is dedicated to exploring the deaths and murders through a darkly humorous tone to illustrate the natural strangeness of the town and to explore the theme of death through a non-sentimental lens. Interspersed throughout the death poems will be persona poems; some from the point-of-view of town-characters to give context regarding who lives in this area, some from the point-of-view of the deceased, and some from the point-of-view of the murderers. These voice-driven poems will not only contextualize the people who make up the town, but will work to explore dark situations from unusual perspectives. Additionally, I will include poems dedicated to the important landmarks throughout the town, such as the most popular bar, the park with an alligator filled lake, and what is generously referred to as the local country club. These poems ingratiate the reader to the town, explaining not only the geography, but to make the reader feel as if they are a part of the town as well. My manuscript opens with "They're Good People, Babe," a voice-driven poem outlining the types of people and situations readers will encounter throughout the project, followed by a poem detailing some of the places and people readers will encounter again as the project progresses. These opening poems will help to ground the reader in the reality of the project, giving them context before they fall into the realm of rumor and hearsay. My manuscript will continue the Southern gothic tradition of telling the stories of people who otherwise would go unnoticed. In the same way Brown, Allison, and O'Connor write about the people who exist on the periphery of society, I want to tell the stories that otherwise would never be told. I hope to obscure the line between realism and surrealism, truth and the absurd, the courtroom transcripts and the surrounding rumors. Picasso says "Art is the lie that tells the truth." Therefore, although aspects of these poems will be based on true events, I will create an alternate universe for them, blurring the barriers between fact and fiction. The importance of this project lies with the characters whose stories deserve to be told, but with changes to protect the survivors.

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