Imitation, they say, is the sincerest form of flattery. In the case of writing, literary nods are also forms of acknowledgment. “O Driver, My Driver,” has just appeared at Exterminating Angel Press: The Magazine. And it is a nod to Walt Whitman. I realized that “O Captain, My Captain,” was a tribute to Abraham Lincoln. I understand Lincoln to be, perhaps for the last time, a president who stood for the common man. Few after Lincoln would rise from humble beginnings to the presidency. Soon it would become the office of the rich and high born. For many of us, life is work. In my particular case, it is a life of commuting as well as working. I sent this little story out to a few places that didn’t understand the pathos involved. I make no fun of Lincoln; in fact, the drivers of my buses are in many ways literally and figuratively, my captain. Climbing aboard a bus before dawn many months of the year, a passenger cannot hel...
Blog of a struggling writer.