> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://hyperallergic.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # "Gentlemen Prefer Bows Over Dinner" by Stephanie Berger and Carina Finn - URL: https://hyperallergic.com/gentlemen-prefer-bows-over-dinner-by-stephanie-berger-and-carina-finn/ - Published: 2014-07-09T14:30:53.000Z - Updated: 2025-11-24T16:44:12.000Z - Description: Our poetry editor, Joe Pan, has selected an original emoji poem by Carina Finn, and its translation by Stephanie Berger, for his series that brings original poetry to the screens of Hyperallergic readers. - Author: Joe Pan - Tags: Poetry, Hyperallergic Poetry, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 07:03 (2014, 2015, part 1) *Our poetry editor, Joe Pan, has selected an original emoji poem by Carina Finn, and its translation by Stephanie Berger, for his* [*series*](http://hyperallergic.com/tag/hyperallergic-poetry/) *that brings original poetry to the screens of Hyperallergic readers.* \* \* \* ## Gentlemen Prefer Bows Over Dinner [![Gentlemen-Prefer-Bows-Over-Dinner-Stephanie-Berger-and-Carina-Finn1](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2014/07/gentlemen-prefer-bows-over-dinner-stephanie-berger-and-carina-finn11.jpg)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2014/07/gentlemen-prefer-bows-over-dinner-stephanie-berger-and-carina-finn.jpg?ref=hyperallergic.com) Old-time TV over Reebok, heaven over love. After two beers their lips part; they get very lucky. Four Martinis later, you’re homeless in America, carrying an old-fashioned medical bag around like your mother’s purse. This emergency is paramount, tantamount, it is a Matterhorn, it is an emergency, complete and full of meaning, explicitly significant as a white flag— Do you ever go to the Disney castle looking for smoke stacks, a tea house? You are climbing everything in the field outside my vision, which is the earth, which is the target of a disaster. Love letters over candy. Letters over love. There is no love outside of the letter. There is a rose outside in the garden, and I caught a falling leaf for the first time in my life. I cut two copies of the key to my heart, hammered light into sound, gunned down three of my greatest opponents with a single shot. I predicted this catastrophe, the catacombs beneath the chapel, keyed the hammer, hammered the leaf into forty smaller leaves. Even this endless heaven requires an umbrella. Even this eternity retired and hired a timekeeper. And we are on our way up the Cyclone, the hurricane is coming. We are embarking upon the Titanic on its third voyage across the bottom of the sea, and we will wake up in different hospitals, end up living in different palaces, one of us might even camp outside for the night for the romance. The sun also rises over ten different cities at once. You are climbing everything in the field outside my vision with the luck of a leaf. Stuck in seagrass, we flounder like in the movies. At the end, after the great disaster, we still take showers, get clean and have our coffee, a small loaf of bread, and we eat it with a fork and knife, gentlemen that we are. \* \* \* Stephanie Berger is the creator and Madame of The Poetry Brothel, co-founder of the New York City Poetry Festival, and co-creator of The Typewriter Project. She published *In The Madame’s Hat Box* on Dancing Girl Press and a collaborative chapbook, *The Grey Bird: thirteen emoji poems in translation* on Coconut Books. Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in *Fence*, *Bat City Review*, *The The Poetry*, *The Electric Pumas*, *Styleite*, and other publications. Occasionally she tumbles at stephani-berger.tumblr.com. Carina Finn holds an MFA in Poetry from the University of Notre Dame. Her first book, *LEMONWORLD & Other Poems*, was a finalist for the 2011 Gatewood Prize, and published by Co.Im.Press in 2013\. Her second full-length collection, *INVISIBLE REVEILLE*, will be published by Coconut Books in October 2014\. She is also the author of three chapbooks, *I HEART MARLON BRANDO* (Wheelchair Party Press, 2010), *MY LIFE IS A MOVIE* (Birds of Lace: A Feminist Press, 2012) and *THE GREY BIRD: THIRTEEN EMOJI POEMS IN TRANSLATION* (Coconut Books, 2014). Her work has won two Academy of American Poets prizes, and been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Carina is also a regular contributor to the popular cultural and literary theory blog, Montevidayo, and is the founder of The Bratty Poets Series.