APRIL FOR BILLY
sundown
my neighbor collects the clothes
I hope his lover finds
magnolia blossoms
in his tight, crisp folds.
posted by kc @ 8:58 PM
10 comments
Monday, April 21, 2008
sundown
my neighbor collects the clothes
I hope his lover finds
magnolia blossoms
in his tight, crisp folds.
10 Comments:
In an effort to reciprocate on the cryptic connection between the copious amount of gaudy laundry tincturing the best month of the year to live at 1011, April, when the most beautiful magnolia I have ever seen blooms like a child kissing a frog, I can only say I am responding to your poem by starting a museum-quality insect collection. I plan on dedicating several hours each Sunday for the rest of my life to it. This is in lieu of religion or children or gardening, all of which allude me in some primal way. From now on, Just dead bugs with pins through them in acid free boxes lined with Styrofoam. And of course there will be meticulously typed labels. I am even contemplating buying a special typewriter, with 6pnt type just for this use.
you crawled into my bed that night
like some sort of giant insect
and i found myself spellbound
at the sight of you,
beautiful and grotesque and all the rest of that bug stuff
bluffing your way into my mouth
behind my teeth, reaching for my scars-
that night we got kicked out of two bars
and laughed our way home
that night you leaned over
and threw up into your hair
and i held you there, thinking-
i would offer you my.....pulse
if i thought it would be useful
(sorry; could not resist the obvious reply)
Yeah, well, Gretel just peed on my only comforter, buffing her way out of my bed and into her kennel.
Oh, that's so good -- the contrast between the otherworldly beauty of the tree and the mundane truth about laundry.
But Earth Day kudos to your neighbor for letting his clothes air-dry ...
Billy, I just killed a prime specimen with a broom. I open the windows; nature comes to me.
Out on thee, murderer!
Hehe. I'm reading Shakespeare's "Titus Andronicus" and that's what Titus says to his brother Marcus for killing a fly.
This scene is apparently not in all editions of the play. It appears in the First Folio, though.
I love it.
They are at a banquet and Marcus stabs a fly with his knife and he's like dude, it's just a fly.
But Titus is enraged:
MARCUS strikes the dish with a knife
TITUS ANDRONICUS
What dost thou strike at, Marcus, with thy knife?
MARCUS ANDRONICUS
At that that I have kill'd, my lord; a fly.
TITUS ANDRONICUS
Out on thee, murderer! thou kill'st my heart;
Mine eyes are cloy'd with view of tyranny:
A deed of death done on the innocent
Becomes not Titus' brother: get thee gone:
I see thou art not for my company.
MARCUS ANDRONICUS
Alas, my lord, I have but kill'd a fly.
TITUS ANDRONICUS
But how, if that fly had a father and mother?
How would he hang his slender gilded wings,
And buzz lamenting doings in the air!
Poor harmless fly,
That, with his pretty buzzing melody,
Came here to make us merry! and thou hast
kill'd him.
(Don't you love Shakespeare?)
Oh, for context, in case you're not familiar with "Titus Andronicus" (I wasn't until a few hours ago) — The fly scene is fantastic because Titus has murdered countless people in countless heinous ways, and the whole play is an extremely gory revenge fest centered on unspeakable mutilation (It is eye-poppingly shocking to read).
And the fly, cl, also reminds me of the fabulous scene in "Psycho" about the son trying to appear so well-adjusted that "he wouldn't hurt a fly."
In "Andronicus," it turns out the fly resembles Titus' Moorish enemy Aaron, so he drops the chastisement and joins in killing the fly.
(also, my favorite thing about that photo isn't the magnolia tree but their skinny black socks hanging on the line ... they look so vulnerable .... hehe)
Nobody's eyes would be cloyed with tyranny if they saw the size of the THING I smashed.
I'm sure this is on your radar, but there's a well-regarded film adaptation of "Titus Andronicus" with Anthony Hopkins. I never saw it but remember my fine arts video co-workers lavishing it with praise.
I don't know that I could sit through it! I'm sure a movie version would be hideously gory and upsetting.
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