This is the way of the seed of the locust,
the grass frog, the tiny peeper.
I built this room from ripped cedar shakes and cardboard,
soft adhesives, silver spun nails, crucifix screws
Light enters the room through tears in the netting,
disfigured branches, salt and weed.
They told us her shoes were on the wrong feet,
that her eyes leaned backwards.
They told us she had chameleon skin
and wonderful hair the color of curl and frizz.
They told us she would like this place above the garden,
near the home of the gray squirrel and mother possum.
We like it, too, the wood strong and smooth,
soft bark, the leaf a melody of light and windsong.
| Copyright © 2021 by Michael H. Brownstein Michael H. Brownstein’s volumes of poetry, A Slipknot Into Somewhere Else and How Do We Create Love?, were published by Cholla Needles Press in 2018 & 2019, respectively. |
Michael, in reading this poem, I think (but am not sure) that I have caught one of the “tricks” of your poems’ allusiveness: the indeterminateness of significant references in them. In this one, there’s “this,” “they,” and “her.” Your poems’ allusiveness calls upon readers to supply the poems’ meanings – rather like life itself.
ReplyDeleteAm I onto something, or barking up the wrong place in the garden?
Meaning is vey subjective. Are we in a garden designed by fairies? I don't know. A homeless stretch of road in Lower Wacker Dr., Chicago? Probably not because there are no gardens, no sunlight. An area of ram-shackled buildings? Maybe. My daughter needed corrective shoes as a baby. She had wonderfully long curls of hair. Her skin darkened easily. Could this be about a garden I built for her with a wooden path, bridges, and waterfalls? Or maybe this is the clubhouse I built with friends for my son and his friends in the middle of our large and heavily weeded backyard?
ReplyDeletePoetry has a music and music is always open to many interpretations. Poetry can also be a painting, and paintings, too, can mean a great number of things.
Don't know if this helps, but I'm glad you got stuck inside my work even if it was for only a little while.
Thank you, Michael! Your comment on the method / technique / esthetics of your versification is the most expansive, informative that I believe you have so far graced us with. We appreciate you!
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