Saturday, March 3, 2012

Raintown #9

So ist das Leben—hart aber dafür gemein


seagulls’ hard steel whine thru steel-
gray March air, raindrops’ splatter &
rasp against window screens, a plastic

clown a plastic rabbit, paint chipped on
each adorning a plot of geraniums, petals
flaccid, last autumn’s leaf-fall mulched

brown as an old bloodstain along the
sidewalks’ edge—the nurse’s 3-year-old
son is getting a drum for his birthday—

her hands in lavender surgical gloves she
wears a purple bandana—two men a-
cross the room discuss bone marrow transplants—

“better in the long run” one says—
outside Multnomah pavilion hybrid roses
bloom crimson against the wall in thick

drizzle—on the bus a woman knits doll
bathing suits discusses the expression
so ist das Leben—oh yes strident cries of

gulls thru the apartment complex hard
& mean no doubt—across the lot on the roof
the brown gull stretches its wings nearly angelic


Jack Hayes
© 2012

8 comments:

  1. I was worried when I started reading this, and was glad to find it was someone else expressing that particular opinion, not my favourite transcriber of the small, and sometimes sodden beauties of the world.

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  2. Thanks so much! Actually, the woman on the bus didn't know the full quote; she simply took it as the more resigned sentiment of the first clause, like "such is life." I wondered about putting it in as an epigraph, but I liked the "mean/hard" gulls that also angelically stretch their wings. It's odd; I had something much different when I thought about this poem yesterday, but when I sat down to write it this came quite naturally.

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  3. i feel like this is the literary version of a series of snapshots. thanks for taking me on the journey. :)

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  4. Hi Barbie: Thanks! Yes, I think that's a good description of one thing I'm trying to do in these poems--moving from one setting to another with no real narrative connectors. Thanks so much :)

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  5. As usual, there are so many wonderful things in this. I like the blood-stain and the lavender gloves. I like the conversations overheard and I LOVE the word "nearly" in the last line! These poems never fail to captivate me.

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  6. Hi Kat: Thanks so much! & thank you for your mention of "nearly," because I think that's kind of important. So much appreciate your support.

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  7. "last autumn’s leaf-fall mulched/brown as an old bloodstain" is brilliant. And I like how the blood comes back in the hybrid roses. I also like how the gulls become "nearly angelic." I think these poems are some of the best expressions of mortality I've read, in all of their detail.

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  8. Hi HKatz: Thank you so much for that comment. I have great respect for you as a reader & a writer, so the fact that you would say that about the "Raintown" poems means a lot to me. I appreciate it very much!

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