A Novel in Verse

By Linda Eve Diamond

I’d like to write a novel in verse.

The ideal novel in verse

would be inverse in every way—

read from back to front

or central pages outward

printed upside-down on the page

as an argument of logic

reasoned through rhyme

and, of course,

as a mathematical function.

The reverse would also be true,

a novel inverse to itself

in inverse proportions—

no mathematical inversions

no rhyme or reason throughout

an argument of no logic

printed downward on the page

read from outer pages inward

or front to back…

…undoing every statement,

countering every point,

creating its own undoing

until everything is right

and nothing is left.

Ah, well. the novel inverse seems to have swallowed itself. I think the film version of this "novel" would end something like James Williamson's 1901 silent short, The Big Swallow, which ends (spoiler alert!) with the actor swallowing the camera...

...and the camera man, too. :)