In response to Jon's Personal Assignment

By -

Escape from New York

I was born to die here. To stretch away and snap
back. All love is elastic, the snap is what stings.
All my memories die here. Bridges whisper into tunnels,
the river wishing, washing light across the Hudson’s fractured face.
It’s not enough to just live here. The city is two boroughs, all else – a beggar –
a polite half-smile, a quarter cup of orange juice. The sting is what snaps.
How can one sleep here? The sky is a grey noise, the streets for days
run their fingers along our soles and speak. There are two boroughs, all else.

I was born to die here. In a quarter cup of orange juice, snapping
swaying across, under, between. The Hudson rises up and nothing needs
to be said. And it is elastic, the way it reaches back toward me, the horror
and nothing needs to be said. How can one sleep? The way it divides, us
and two sorry boroughs, the way even love spoils. It’s not enough.

The sting. The snap. The city dies and I crawl into it to stay warm but cannot
sleep for the stench.


+ There are echoes of Jon's assignment in there. Hopefully you'll find them.

Comments

  1. bigscarygiraffeSeptember 9, 2009 at 11:01 PM

    this poem feels EXACTLY like a taut rubber band. well done, sir.

    ReplyDelete
  2. KateRoseSeptember 10, 2009 at 9:41 AM

    Agreed. I REALLY like this.

    ReplyDelete
  3. JonSeptember 13, 2009 at 8:42 PM

    hey kid,
    so you did your assignment better than I did, go figure on that one. The mixing is tight and taut, and I like it a lot. I’m not crazy about the stanza breaks here – visually it looks a little ungainly – but that suggesting is visual only.
    the title is too jokey, I think, it doth wink too much. “All my memories die here” is a bit too over-the-top, sentiment-wise, but I like the reversal of the repetition.
    the rhythm and kinetics are so propulsive and constant – not necessarily fast, but can’t stop moving, which is mimetically great and metrically fab.
    you know what? I’m gonna stop right here. This feels like Skream’s “Let’s Get Ravey” remix of “In For The Kill” by La Roux layered over “Homeless” by Burial. It feels dischordant, but perfect. The mood is perfect. I’m going to let it soak in. Nice.

    ReplyDelete

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