Alan Perry
In Jeopardy
(for Alex Trebek)
From podiums, contestants question
the answers in a game of no choices,
only the right to respond
with a triggering device.
Who knows which English king
beheaded his wives, the patriot
who uttered I have but one life to lose,
the disease that took Marie Curie?
I notice the wet eyes of one player
who chokes on a question
but scribbles we love you, Alex.
Now each day I scan for signs
that cancer is winning this round
blanching his skin,
drowning his energy
under the spotlights.
Like a medium who
listens to a voice
from beyond,
I count down the episodes,
tune in for the finale
of an extended season.
I know the answer
before anyone asks him
the question.
About the writer:
Alan Perry’s debut poetry chapbook, Clerk of the Dead, was published by Main Street Rag Publishing in 2020. His poems have appeared in Tahoma Literary Review, Heron Tree, Open: Journal of Arts & Letters, Gyroscope Review, and elsewhere, and in several anthologies. He is a Senior Poetry Editor for Typehouse Literary Magazine and a Best of the Net nominee. Perry holds a BA in English from the University of Minnesota, and he and his wife divide their time between Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Tucson, Arizona.
Image: Dans Macabre by Endre Rozsda (1913- 1999). No medium specified. No size specified. 1946-1947. By free license.
