Hi grasshopper,
An utterly amazing poem! Each time I've read it I've felt aware of, and
scared of, the power and threat it's describing!
But I have occasionally been surprised by the image of cruise liners (which
seem to arrive so unexpectedly in the poem - particularly when it ends up in
a car-park!). Is this metaphoric sequence of icebergs and ships essential to
the poem? I may feel happier (not the right word to describe my feeling!) if
I wasn't distracted by the ships!
Bob
>From: grasshopper <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Pennine Poetry Works <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: New sub: Megaera in the Cocktail Hour
>Date: Mon, 7 Oct 2002 18:57:11 +0100
>
>Megaera in the Cocktail Hour
>
>She is standing with the dark-eyed man
>in the corner. He is twitchy with his glass,
>casting glances at the wall where the clock
>escaped. It is because, his teeth remarked,
>he has to be elsewhere, locking the gate
>against defenders. She has been through
>several sieges, has eaten ripe, unnamed flesh
>and sucked on roast rat-tails.
>She reaches down with tended talons,
>tweaks the rule of stockings
>which she wears on her shinbones
>as a statement of entente.
>
>Icebergs clink in crystal,
>liners cruise proud and unprepared
>across the carpet. Passengers wave
>from the shore, their journey in the air.
>She is growing feathers as he squirms.
>She preens, pecks, crows 'Darling.'
>He is nestward bound, destined
>to feed her green and gold fledglings.The rush
>of wings bears him out into the car-park
>and pins him to leather. He has no chance
>to semaphore. He misses Mayday.
>
> grasshopper
>
>
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