In the neighborhood
In the neighborhood
where I live they're digging a hundred-
six-foot wide hole, three blocks long and seems all the
way to China with blasting, chain-link, bed-
rock, big trucks, money, whistles-piercing-
every-day-earth-moving dynamite. Excavators and
backhoes, cranes, forklifts. I remember Dag Hammarskjöld
Plaza, United Nations building at night I could see rats
when people left the hole. I look for rats in this hole
but don't see them. Too far down? I look for rats in my
toilet too; they can swim for days and days and days, but
they haven't come yet. Hope they don't, but they came when I
lived by the UN. Ate my bananas. What is it with construc-
tion? Rats? China? The UN? Backhoes? Five piercing warn-
ing shrieks before blasting? Neighborhood. City. World. Horns.
—Suze
where I live they're digging a hundred-
six-foot wide hole, three blocks long and seems all the
way to China with blasting, chain-link, bed-
rock, big trucks, money, whistles-piercing-
every-day-earth-moving dynamite. Excavators and
backhoes, cranes, forklifts. I remember Dag Hammarskjöld
Plaza, United Nations building at night I could see rats
when people left the hole. I look for rats in this hole
but don't see them. Too far down? I look for rats in my
toilet too; they can swim for days and days and days, but
they haven't come yet. Hope they don't, but they came when I
lived by the UN. Ate my bananas. What is it with construc-
tion? Rats? China? The UN? Backhoes? Five piercing warn-
ing shrieks before blasting? Neighborhood. City. World. Horns.
—Suze
Suze, I really like this poem- it feels quite grounded and has a lot to say. I like how you depict the noise and disruption of the construction, with " "blasting, chain-link, bed-rock, big trucks, money, whistles piercing-"
ReplyDeleteI like the narrators search for something familiar- the rats, something that can no longer be found, despite the hope that they not be found.
A few suggestions- I stumbled on a hundred-six-foot wide, maybe a hundred and six foot wide( maybe its just me). Maybe a comma after piercing.
The last question/sentence is intriguing- it feels big. It leaves me with the sense of the narrator's frustration or disillusionment with the world- the noise, the disruption, the lack of stability. It leaves me feeling agitated. In a good way. It leaves me wanting to try to help/ to address the problems- to think about how the world can be a calmer, more cooperative place -to slow it down, meditate, find love... It's interesting, fitting that there are no people in the poem, besides the narrator- just machines/ progress? Nice- something to think about.
Suze,
ReplyDeleteI too like this poem. The first five or six lines really capture the energy of city construction. I like too that you refer to the construction of the UN--doing so lets us know of the possible beauty and function that could result from the dig, though now it is only a hole and whistles. The one line that seemed a bit out of place to me is "hope they don't"--that doesn't seem to fit either into the past or the actual present.
The words imitate the endless construction that goes on in every city. It's an awesome effect. I adore the small rat tangent before we're back to construction and china and world and noise and ultimately...life.
ReplyDeleteGreat energy. Great read :)
Corrina