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Things to Do in a Post-Doug Lang DC
Be sad. Be very, very sad. Worry about Sandra, Phyllis, Terry, and Bernie. Worry about Rod
and Dan. DM Sandra. Text Phyllis. Text Tom. Cry while watching the crane a block away building a
Whole Foods where Walter Reed used to be. Try to right a line about regret and fail. Text
Leslie. Walk down 9th street toward Dahlia and begin to cry. Drink tea. Drink seltzer. Drink red
wine. Drink coffee. Eat loads of dark chocolate. Cry in an ugly way with chocolate in your mouth.
Read aloud from dérangé with Ken, Lorraine, Ryan, Sasha, and Tom. Listen to Ethiopian jazz
with Ken, Lorraine, Ryan, Sasha, and Tom. Listen to Aldous Harding’s “Horizon” on repeat. Cross
Columbia Road on 18th wearing a thin coat against the cold. Imagine Doug standing outside
DCAC smoking a cigarette on the sidewalk. Hallucinate Doug smoking a cigarette on the
sidewalk. See Doug’s crinkly-eyed smile hovering over the landscape. Write a line about regret and erase it.
Feel depressed. Feel really fucking depressed. Sink into such a deep depression you don’t leave
the house and you consider starting a new political party called “Doug Lang’s Party for Psycho-
economic Derangement.” Try to remember if such a political party already exists. Listen to
Lemonade. Think about death.
Be full of dread
Be full of dread
Be full of dread
Be full of dread
Listen to jazz while full of dread
Walk through Rock Creek Park mumbling there’s nothing to be grateful for. Get weepy with
gratitude for the sky, telephones, and the scene in Mad Men when Don Draper barks at Peggy,
That’s what the money is for. Decide to pretend Doug has just moved back to Wales. Scroll
through facebook looking for posts about Doug. Click the thumbs up, click the heart, click the
crying yellow face. Become obsessed with the Real Housewives. Make soup. Make scrambled
eggs and eat them while watching the Real Housewives. Sleep. Toss and turn. Sleep some more.
Listen to Mulatu Astatke with Ken. Hold Monkey and cry. Consider tying a bit of rag to a metal
nut and throwing it ahead of you to navigate all the way from Takoma to Adams Morgan, like
they do in Stalker. Sip two double Johnny Walker reds and have a great time with the poets.
Down two double Johnny Walker reds and leave before they hit.
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Cathy Eisenhower lives and works as a psychotherapist in Washington, DC, and is the author of Language of the Dog-heads (Phylum 2001), clearing without reversal (Edge 2008), would with and (Roof 2009), distance decay (Ugly Duckling 2015), and animalitos (Primary Writing 2017). She has translated the selected poems of Argentine poet Diana Bellessi and co-curates a reading series at Rhizome DC. Her work has appeared in The Recluse, Aufgabe, West Wind Review, The Brooklyn Rail, and Fence.
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Tom Green, Corpus, 1994
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Author: Terence Winch
