The incidental grasping of hands that leads to something more,
The death of a milkman from imbibing too much milk,
The piercing chill of the spine in that seedy part of town,
The old-time song that evokes memories long past...
The sound of a single atom of a particle of smoke,
The cry of a baby humming bird, fallen from its nest,
The inappropriate utterances of the ignorant,
The lustful scent of a well-aged wine...
The pungent stench of the drunk and desperate in the street,
The maniacal rage of the broken, of misplaced anger,
The sweet melancholic weeping of the mandolin,
The spice of fragrant curry dancing in the wind,
The old woman dying in her bed, her family circled 'round,
The chuckle of the street juggler who just dropped a peg,
The beautiful soft curves of the human body,
The madness of the atom bomb...
The senseless laughter of child flying her little red kite,
The painful screeching of car brakes in the middle of an intersection,
The teenage boy helping the feeble old man with his groceries,
The pain of a bolt gun crushing a pig's skull...
The anticipation of a first kiss,
The painful farewell of parting lovers...
All of this and so much less...
None of this and so much more...
...the sweet little nothing.
2 comments:
The first line of this came to me last night when I was chopping mushrooms (of the non-magic variety) for a sauté.
I composed the rest today in about 30 minutes, so it's a bit rough...extremely rough.
Please, take a meat cleaver or a scalpel, and carve away as seen fit.
This poem shares thematics commonalities with Chris' "little things": the idea of embracing the minutiae. However, unlike Chris' poem, there are some very bold and loud images strewn about the seemingly trivial: "The madness of the atom bomb..."; "The pain of a bolt gun crushing a pig's skull..." Are these moments in here to jolt the reader's senses? If not, maybe the emphasis on the atom bomb needs to be placed elsewhere, to maintain the concept of "sweet little nothings." Maybe the tiny spring that ticks the madness of that atom bomb? Or maybe emphasize the shell of the bolt, rather than the pain. Though I don't see space for a meat cleaver here, a few snippets with the scalpel may help.
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