Thomas William Simpson

Middle Class American White Boy Thomas William Simpson

I've been a scribbler since I plagiarized Stephen Stills' anthem to love Suite: Judy Blue Eyes back in high school in an effort to win over a pretty girl who thought I was nothing but a loud, obnoxious jock. I wanted her to know I had a soft side. It worked! And I learned the power of the written word. I soon began to scribble original poetry and prose. God awful stuff. Cliché-ridden, melodramatic gobble-de-gook. But I kept at it and, well, became reasonably adept at stringing the words together. So what is this Middle Class American White Boy all about? It's sort of a memoir in verse. This Second Edition contains twenty stories (narratives) (poems) from some crucial or mind-expanding time in my life. The idea is to tell as much story as possible in the fewest possible words. The Universe, for instance-my own personal War & Peace-tells the tale of my time in Argentina during the Dirty War. When I wrote the account many moons ago it topped out at almost 30,000 words. I have now reduced that same story to a narrative verse of just over 900 words. You can read (either silently or aloud) each story in the collection in 2-8 minutes. To hold your attention for even that long-before you scroll away or wander off-I try to create one rapid-fire image after another in your brain. Middle Class American White Boy unfolds chronologically. I travel. I dream. I mature. I write. I publish. I fall in love. I marry. I become a father. My view of life and what is important expands and changes. Always, in every narrative, I question the status quo, especially my own. But no matter how far I roam, deep I think, or believe to the contrary, I am and always be a Middle Class American White Boy. I have tried to do my best with the freedom and privilege that designation has afforded me.