Sometimes I hate the corner,
full of things, half forgotten,
silverfish-gnawed and water rotten,
turning into surprises, wrapped
in skin flakes, hair, and that—
that unspoken dictate, “Unmoved,
old-parts of us decay, making room.”
Sometimes I love the corner
in a moment of lifts and flings,
where “I remember this” briefly
as I dust it off, imagining—
The fresh-cell crunch of a hand-held
lilac blossom, purple, with
a green bug blotting the midst
of a single-day luminous, sheltering
of a single-day luminous, sheltering
bract. In a panic, I asked “Mum,
can I run back quickly, to where it's
from?
”“Where—back in time?...” She
laughed, 'No,'
and smiling held me—so “Let it go”
I said to my grip. (But yes, ma,
there I meant)
I let it slip.
it went.
The speaker is faced with a conflict in their life. They are torn between two sides or two perspectives. This "corner" represents their perspectives on memory or the past and the speaker either loves or hates this reflection of the past. When he hates the corner, it reminds him of untouched past and slow decay whereas when he loves the corner the memories are dusted off and seemingly lovely. In the end, he must come to terms with letting go of the past as instructed by his mother however it is clear he is reluctant to do so. This is likely because although he may hate the corner that preserves the past at times, it still holds valuable memories.
ReplyDeleteIn this poem, the narrator is describing his love-hate (or in this instance, hate-love) relationship with a corner in his home. In the first stanza, he criticizes the dilapidated items he finds, the discarded items that are decaying and make up the majority of the scrap pile. However, every once in awhile the narrator discovers something of value or interest. In society, whenever we shove something in a corner (or send someone to a corner as punishment), we label it/him as something of less worth. One could view this poem as commentary on the fact that we sometimes forget the value of things we no longer pay attention to and take for granted. Similarly, we tend to forget the value of our previous experiences, or in some cases like this we purposefully try to forget the past.
ReplyDelete