The American Poetry You Want

THE BABY-FACED, AMERICAN Dickman twins rolled into Manchester on a Tuesday – and left that same Tuesday, one stop on their English-city-hopping promotional tour (London, Manchester, and a petrol station loo or two in between), touting their dual-authored Faber release, the red, white and blue tête-bêche (flip-book) Brother. It reprints poems published in individual collections by the two brothers, and it’s all about their half-brother Darin, who killed himself. The Dickmans were endenimed, unbearded and wearing similar eyeglasses.

In order to tell the two brothers apart, a difficulty I have always had with identical twins, and especially because they are both wearing jeans, I list here some of the differences I noticed between them: Matthew has a bit of a squeeky voice and tatts on his arms; Michael is more nasal-voiced and may also have tatts, but his sleeves are rolled down this evening; Michael’s jeans are ripped, purposefully, and his blazer is brown corduroy with a sort of superhero button on the left lapel; Matthew’s jeans are rolled, his New Balance 998 Trainers are very clean, his NYC baseball cap is half-cocked (he takes the cap off for the reading, gentleman that he is, which leaves him with a bit of hathead); Michael wears green socks and a red check shirt; Matthew has a light blue dress shirt on, sleeves rolled (see above) and ankle socks; Matthew’s lines are long; Michael’s lines are short; Michael teaches at Princeton; Matthew is poetry editor ...