Surprise

 

 

 

The New Yorker always surprises me

When it come although

It comes every Thursday or Friday¹

It’s not that I forget that I have

A subscription—it’s that

The magazine is so different

From everything else in my life.

It’s as if a tiny little UFO

Showed up in my mailbox

Or Bigfoot knocked

At my front door.

You’d be surprised, too,

Wouldn’t you?

That’s how it is

With The New Yorker.

Maybe I don’t expect

Some of the outré

Articles and statements

Within the magazine

Or coverage of issues that

Almost no one knows about

Or the cartoons that make no sense.²

Whatever it is, I can look forward

To being surprised

Almost every week.

_____

¹ Five combined (i.e., biweekly) issues appear in February, June, July, August and December and at other times, as indicated on the issue’s cover.

² My favorites. Aren’t they yours?

 

Dan Verner

April 21, 2017