Anyway, the inspiration for the poem comes from Herta Müller’s The Land of Green Plums.
“Mother didn’t put down her knife while eating, even though everything had already been cut into bite-size pieces. She needed it to speak with.” (p. 142)
I found that striking - needing a knife to speak with. Like a microphone, or a pointer, or just the extension of a thought. I love the image of someone speaking with a knife. You will recognize the phrase in the beginning of my poem, but that’s about all it has to do with The Land of Green Plums.
4 comments:
Love the poem (esp. that "slow-motion noir") and the quote that inspired it. This is the kind of character-building detail I'm discussing with my creative writing students lately, so it was apt!
Great poem! Larks are another useful cigarette brand for poetry -- though not for smoking (those filters were gross!) (at least for this former smoker who once included Larks in a poem)
Never heard of Larks. I have been out of the cigarette market for some time! I was in the store the other day waiting to check out, perusing the cigarettes near the cashier trying to imagine which brand I'd choose if I started again. I am surprised what a popular brand Lucky Strikes is in Germany. My grandmother smoked them. They do a lot of advertising, black lung and all.
I like that the cigarette has the right amount of purposeful nonchalance.
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