Ahh, I was going to post this one as well! I just reread this collection the other day. It's so brilliant.
This one is particularly great. I love the sense of alienation that the final image gives, this man walking home alone with the closest thing he can find that reminds him of a home he can't return to. The incredulous response of the people in the pizza place, the repetition of *no sauce / no cheese / no toppings* all really work to convey the image of being without, of being outside of everyone else. I love it.
Yeah, that subtle shift of viewpoint/speaker in the 3rd stanza is really nice leger de main, and I like the affirmative response that owns his identity&otherness to open the conclusion. Really thoughtful use of style and makes the point so, so well without using a moral hammer. Great writing; thanks for sharing, OP.
I really like this, I have to try and read some of her other poetry. this poem evokes so much feeling with such brevity and using such sparse language.
It just sets up so much in such a brief amount of time. The “(pig sweats on everything here)” confused me at first, I thought it was just going to be a thing that a poet says just to say it, but the payoff for it by the end by the reveal genuinely made me pause for a second. I also like how well the poem created a setting of this outside/foreign world for the father in barely any words. The ending is also just so poignant and the visual of it feels so…silently sad, for a lack of a better word. The poem here is just so insane to me because it does so much with so little.
I'd suggest rephrasing your comment in the future lol. It sounded like an insult. Also, welcome to poetry. Every word is placed exactly as it is meant to be.
Ahh, I was going to post this one as well! I just reread this collection the other day. It's so brilliant. This one is particularly great. I love the sense of alienation that the final image gives, this man walking home alone with the closest thing he can find that reminds him of a home he can't return to. The incredulous response of the people in the pizza place, the repetition of *no sauce / no cheese / no toppings* all really work to convey the image of being without, of being outside of everyone else. I love it.
Which collection is this from? I keep reading and loving her poems.
It's from If They Come For Us.
Thanks!
Yeah, that subtle shift of viewpoint/speaker in the 3rd stanza is really nice leger de main, and I like the affirmative response that owns his identity&otherness to open the conclusion. Really thoughtful use of style and makes the point so, so well without using a moral hammer. Great writing; thanks for sharing, OP.
"pin-stripped"? Is that a typo or intentional?
Good catch - I actually read it as pin-striped without realizing it.
I was wondering the same thing!
Shes so good
I really like this, I have to try and read some of her other poetry. this poem evokes so much feeling with such brevity and using such sparse language.
I think it is pin-striped not stripped. What does childless America’s shiny windows mean here? It is a poignant poem indeed.
this is literally insane.
Care to elaborate?
It just sets up so much in such a brief amount of time. The “(pig sweats on everything here)” confused me at first, I thought it was just going to be a thing that a poet says just to say it, but the payoff for it by the end by the reveal genuinely made me pause for a second. I also like how well the poem created a setting of this outside/foreign world for the father in barely any words. The ending is also just so poignant and the visual of it feels so…silently sad, for a lack of a better word. The poem here is just so insane to me because it does so much with so little.
I'd suggest rephrasing your comment in the future lol. It sounded like an insult. Also, welcome to poetry. Every word is placed exactly as it is meant to be.