John Emil Vincent
Lest ye be
Benjamin Franklin invented the glass armonica. An instrument credited with supernatural powers by soundtracks to this day. It replicates a spit-wet finger running a glass-rim. An “unplugged theramin” really.
Glasses originally, for amateurs, sipped of their wine or topped off for each tone. The glass armonica does this in an orderly, sober, professional sort of way.
As if a bunch of monkeys in livery in ranks parading perfectly for some diminutive demagogue also dressed in a livery-themed outfit—but with a better, more severe, hat. Also, however, despite his confidence, and hat,
a monkey.
John Emil Vincent is the author of Excitement Tax (DC Books, 2018), short-listed for the Quebec Writers’ Federation First Book Prize, and Ganymede’s Dog, forthcoming from McGill-Queen’s University Press in fall 2019. He has published several books of criticism and is a trained archivist. Vincent lives in Montreal and teaches at Concordia University.
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