<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div class="">The Signings </div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Lies can be charismatic, the truth is cloudy,</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">With its traditional testing place a body.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">I cross my heart and hope to die. The breath,</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">One hand on the book, one raised, exhales the oath.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">The bully making a club of the victim’s hand,</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">“You hit yourself”: Falsehood asserts Command.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Mortgage papers declare and hereby pledge</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">That money is money. Sign here, page after page.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">The President holds up for the camera’s eye</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">A paper with his signature, two inches high.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Times when he lied or cheated, the Director</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Made longhand notes. Now the Director’s an author</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">On a bookstore tour. He produced his clunky book</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Himself. No ghost. In a defensive joke</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">At signings a writer I know likes to set up</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">A jar he labels “For Tips”: wry overlap</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Of Truth, Marketing and Art. Any collector</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Knows to pay less for copies with a signed sticker</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Than one with its title page directly signed:</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Authentic, true. But on the other hand,</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Inscribed to someone’s name is somehow worth less</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Than simply Signed, out here in the marketplace —</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">But why? The blemish of the particular?</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Or truth too a commodity? Flailing for air.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- Robert Pinsky</div><div class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>(Listen to Pinsky read it himself: <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/lifestyle/magazine/ben-folds-artists-alternative-storytelling-issue/?utm_term=.6cb833a99cd1#pg-benfolds" class="">https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/lifestyle/magazine/ben-folds-artists-alternative-storytelling-issue/?utm_term=.6cb833a99cd1#pg-benfolds</a>)</div><div class=""><br class=""></div></body></html>