Jack Spicer’s Ghost ceased haunting EXPLANATORY NOTES years ago. In fact, Jack Spicer’s Ghost ceased haunting anything years ago. The invocation of Jack Spicer’s Ghost in the above dedication is a ploy by the poets to fulfill an unspecified function. While unspecified, the ploy’s failure should be evident, nonetheless, to readers.

Rod Smith is a pseudonym for a former lover of the poets; the proper noun Rod Smith is not a reference to the poet Rod Smith. One would think that such a fact was evident if one seriously considered the well-documented comments made in public by the poets with regard to both Rod Smith and former lovers. Of course, the possibility remains that readers of this poem will never have met the poets and, even if they have, will never have paid much attention to the comments made in public by the poets regarding Rod Smith and former lovers. The possibility remains that the poets never made comments about Rod Smith or former lovers in public.

The poets once saw the following written on a restroom wall: “I am the ghost of syrup and stingers, Cegeste and fake novels.” The aforementioned restroom wall was located in Cooperstown, New York, inside the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame.