“In the End You Get Everything Back (Liza Minnelli),” by Jason Schneiderman

Poetry faculty member Jason Schneiderman was recently featured on the podcast The Slowdown. Read an excerpt of “In the End You Get Everything Back (Liza Minnelli)” below:

In the End You Get Everything Back (Liza Minnelli)

The afterlife is an infinity of custom shelving, where everything 

you have ever loved has a perfect place, including things

that don’t fit on shelves, like the weeping willow from

your parents’ backyard, or an old boyfriend, exactly as he was

in your second year of college, or an aria you love, but without

the rest of the opera you don’t particularly care for.

My favorite joke: Q: You know who dies? A: Everyone!

Because it’s true. But ask any doctor and they’ll say that

prolonging a life is saving a life. Ask anyone who survives

their surgeries, and they’ll say yes, to keep living is to be saved.

 

Read (and hear) this entire poem here: https://www.slowdownshow.org/episode/2022/04/15/654-in-the-end-you-get-everything-back-liza-minnelli