Whilst sitting in my doctor's waiting room, reading only the cartoons in April's New Yorker, I stumbled upon a chilling photo of two young men. They were so... haunting... that I read the title of the piece (Couplet by Rebecca Mead). Upon finding out they were, in fact, twin poets from Portland, Oregon, I began to frantically flip the pages of the article, and read all of the paragraphs to it, in no particular order. Why I read the article this way I could not really explain, except perhaps that I felt at any moment I could be called back by the doctor, and was skimming it urgently for the best parts.
Matthew and Michael Dickman have shared the same home, the same city, the same upbringing, and much of the same genetic code. But only one of them has kissed Allen Ginsberg in a hotel room. (Seriously, you should probably read this NYrker article). Oh, and they were the creepy twins from Minority Report. The "precogs" or whatever. I had to look that up, though, cuz I haven't seen it.
Some facts:
So... I stole the New Yorker from my doctor's office.
Some facts:* They both went to UT Austin for MFAs because it was the only school that took both of them.
* They work to not be associated with each other, as writers, but are oft mentioned together (see: all the articles ever when you google them, + this blog entry).
* I can tell them apart when looking at them, but I mix them up when I read them. I'm having a hard time picking a favorite.
* A lot of their poetry is about the rough-and-tumble bad parts of Portland.
* Their mother's stepfather was the father of Sharon Olds. Sharon Olds writes a lot about her father/grandfather. Whenever their class was asked to read Sharon Olds, the boys were excused, because their mother didn't want them to learn about the men in their family in a negative poetic light.
Here's a tiny photo of them being playful!
So... I stole the New Yorker from my doctor's office. I'm not sure that I am in love with their work (I haven't yet read it extensively, and love takes time), but I love poetry, and I love this story. In the end, they may be more famous for this twin-as-phot-op thing than their work, but hey, great photo ops. and i will be reading both of their books, eventually.
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