Funds for Bookworm are provided in part by Lannin Foundation.

Boots!

Where would we be without books?

Where would we be without good?

No, Timberd.

It's a rhetorical question, sir.

But where would we be without books?

From KCRW and KCRW.com, I'm Michael Silverblatt.

This is bookworm.

My guest is the poet Mary Rufel.

She's written a book of prose poetry called My Private Property.

It's published by Wave Books.

Now, for the first time on Bookworm, you're actually going to hear a long piece by the author.

This is because the title piece of this book surprised me so much.

And Mary Rufel, my guest, has written an essay, the title essay in the book, on Shrunken Heads.

Some of what you'll hear may strike you as gruesome,

but it's not the writing that's gruesome. It's a shrunken head that's somewhat gruesome.

And here's Mary Rufel reading the essay, My Private Property.

It is sad, is it not, that no one today displays any interest in the art of shrunken heads.

Men, women, and children walk on streets.

They cross fields and enter forests.

They run along the edges of oceans.

...