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Love you, baby.
With my hands in the air,
I love you.
With my eyes dark bruised
And my back
Tight over shoulders and
Down my spine:
Love you baby,
All the time.
Love you, baby.
When you cry awake nights,
I love you.
When you flood hot water
(Squinting springs
Running core-deep, where
No words play):
Love you baby,
Anyway.
Love you, baby.
As our minds are breaking,
I love you.
As we don't believe
That this chaffed,
Unsustainable
Strain goes right:
Love you baby,
Every night.
*No actual babies were licked in the making of this collage.
ReplyDeleteI was worried that babies were, in fact, licked in the making of this collage so it's relieving that they weren't. Even though the image that supplements this poem is one of a newborn baby, I don't think the speaker is referring to that kind of "baby"--instead, I think the "baby" referenced in this poem is the speaker's significant other. I get the sense that perhaps the speaker's relationship with this person is very strained. The speaker mentions how his eyes are "dark bruised," maybe from lack of sleep or stress, and mentions how his “hands [are] in the air,” as when somebody is exasperated during a fight. I think the more telling and heartbreaking line, though, is when the speaker proclaims his love even as both people’s “minds are breaking,” as if these two people are desperately struggling to make a relationship work that just won’t seem to (in fact, the word “unsustainable” is used). I wonder if, when the speaker says “Love you, baby” over and over, he’s saying it to convince himself that he does, in fact, love her? It could also be used ironically, perhaps that “Love you, baby” is almost a mocking of their once-great relationship in which “I love you” was a common phrase. Now, however, “Love you, baby,” is the tired, almost passive alternative.
ReplyDelete...or, the speaker is professing love for an actual baby, even in the midst of the sleeplessness and stress that new little life brings into their schedule (when you reach your late 20s-early 30s, you'll start to see a lot of dark eyes on your peers).
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