DESCRIBED AS “POSSESSED”

By Ben Greenman

from forthcoming collection, as yet untitled

Monica Viertel, the state’s first female poet laureate in more than a decade—the last, of course, was K. Palaini—was sitting at her usual table at Parisian Giant this afternoon when, owing to circumstances not yet understood, her coffee cup leapt from the table and scalded her hand and thigh. Viertel was seriously burned but is expected to recover. She is a widow with two children. Her husband Per was killed two years ago when he was stuck by a 1914 Sizaire-Berwick driven by the director of the local automotive museum. The operator, Walter Wyler, was not arrested, as Viertel was walking late at night on a road specifically designated for the museum’s rarest vehicles, many of which do not possess even basic safety features. Wyler fell into a deep depression following the accident, and began to improve only after Monica Viertel agreed to meet with him. After six months of visits, the two began to date. Viertel’s latest book, Tears Will Be The Chaser For Your Wine, is dedicated jointly to Per and Wyler. The Beacon has called it a “striking account of both suffering and salvation, with an almost Yeatsian vitality that surfaces just when all seems most lost.” Viertel will be unable to perform her duties as laureate, which include dedicating the new library, until her burns heal. The coffee cup, which eyewitnesses described as “possessed” and “jumping right into her like it had a vendetta or something,” was taken into evidence by police.