Audrey:
I enjoyed this poem. I love the marriage of personal memory and literary
facts with regard to Ouija.
Do you know the Ted Hughes poem entitled Ouija, from Birthday Letters. The
first time I read it I got goose bumps.
Best,
Sarah
> [Original Message]
> From: Audrey Friedman <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: 4/18/2003 6:56:01 PM
> Subject: A poem in progress...
>
> Museum of the Talking Boards
>
> Scrabble with an attitude, someone
> dubbed the Ouija with its sun and moon,
> digits and definitive answers. It could
> simplify problems more daunting
>
> than relativity or the quantum theories
> that dizzied old Albert. As a child, I pushed
> the hard plastic hand to one side
> or the other when I needed a neat
>
> equation. Does Alan G. love me? Will I pass
> Algebra? The source of control was in my fingers
> then. I reached for the Ouija when I couldn't force
> the right answer from the murky core
>
> of the Magic 8 Ball. I hear there are stories
> housed in the Museum of the Talking Boards,
> tales that defy the lies my fingers told.
> Ouija spoke the last book of Oz,
>
> with Baum already a year under dirt that thickly
> crusted over his bones. Sax Rohmer asked
> the Ouija how he'd make his fortune,
> and penned Fu Manchu when the ivory palm
>
> answered C-H-I-N-A-M-A-N. Ouija,
> with your chipped corners and faded black
> scrawls, now you sleep undisturbed
> near a cracked and dusty 8 Ball
>
> and a letterless Scrabble set on the bottom
> shelf of the Salvation Army Thriftshop. I never
> did master the balancing and solving
> of those complex quadratic equations.
|