BIO: Oren Wagner lives in Indianapolis, the capitol city of Indiana, situated neatly in the Middle West of North America. Recent publications include Zen Baby, The New York Quarterly, Poesy, The Quirk, and Remark, among others. Oren Wagner is the recipient of the 2008 How Deep is Your Love Rap Song Writing Award. All other accolades will be meaningless, therefore he intends on retiring soon from writing, so now is the time to capitalize on “booking that poet.” In 2007, Wagner toured the country to promote his second chapbook of poetry. Now Oren Wagner is a household name in literally tens of homes across the nation.

PUBLICATIONS:
My Life in the Former Colonies, Ego Creek Press, 2007 - $5.00
The Last Redcoat, Platonic 3Way Press, 2006 - $5.00

OTHER POEMS

nyqpoets.com/orenwagner
POEMS
THE LAST REDCOAT

In Seattle, I worked with a girl named Laura
who had a split personality named Deirdre from the UK
and was equipped with the accent to prove it.

Laura got fired for giving her number to a 32-
year-old patron, whose wife didn’t appreciate a 16-
year-old bookstore employee hitting on her husband.

I had a soft spot for Deirdre and didn’t think it was
reasonable that they both got terminated.
Deirdre was far more sophisticated

than her 16-year-old counterpart. This lack of
fairness forced me into revolution, but
the British embassy wouldn’t see me.
Tony Blair wouldn’t answer my letters.

The only British person who ever listened was The
Rolling Stones’ Keith Richards. I talked Keith into
talking his band mates into playing a benefit for
their country’s lost daughter.

A benefit to send her back to the UK. A dream that
wouldn’t be fulfilled jobless. The Stone’s ended up
not having the “stones” to play claiming problems with
their agent. Laura and Deirdre got their jobs

back at the book store in the stock room where they
weren’t allowed to interact with customers. Deirdre
has no idea what I went through to try and send her
home. I never bring it up.

Sometimes by the time clock I hear her humming her
National Anthem or "Street Fighting Man," then a Boston
Tea Party of sadness goes through my body when I know
how close she was to living

her dream. A dream where dairy milk flows like the
Avon Wiltshire river, and trunks are called boots and
hoods are called bonnets. A dream living under a sky
where the Union Jack flies from every flagpole in the Kingdom.

—Oren Wagner

from The Last Redcoat (Platonic 3Way Press, 2006)