Dennis Cooper in Four Acts

ACT ONE

Dennis Cooper saves the world.

Dennis Cooper encapsulates Los Angeles in one brief paragraph consisting entirely of monosyllabic words.

Dennis Cooper takes his new young boyfriend to the pet store to buy a dog collar.

Dennis Cooper collects his friends’ empty prescription bottles and uses them to make one window of his loft look like a green and amber stained-glass window.

Dennis Cooper’s aggressive thinness is wrongly attributed to drug use.

Dennis Cooper never forgets.



ACT TWO

Dennis Cooper introduces his friends Ted, Tex, Kip, Mark, Rod and Rob to his other friends, Tim, Tom, blonde Chuck, brunette Chuck, Jay, and Craig. Handshakes and phone numbers are exchanged.

Dennis Cooper decides the appropriate number of fingers to put up a stranger’s ass on the first date is: three.

Dennis Cooper slowly accrues meaning as time wears on.



ACT THREE
Dennis Cooper meets John Rechy in a dark alley.








ACT FOUR
Dennis Cooper dresses in black and charms the crowd.

Dennis Cooper can’t decide whether to squelch or encourage the latest rumors about him.

Dennis Cooper describes Los Angeles as a series of reflective surfaces.

Dennis Cooper writes the Great American Novel and then slowly erases it one word at a time.



by Nicholas Grider
photos by Danielle Adair