Over the course of lunch
a peregrine falcon dismembers a pigeon
On the window sill I lay a red cloth
winding the chopsticks about with scarlet thread
waiting wanting wantoning
naked nape to mandoline while Edward
succeeds Victoria
while Elisabeth succeeds George
Sated on scraps
Bursting our bounds
Landfalling we carry High John
Seaplanes scooping bellyfuls
All water futile to Mopti, Segu, Timbuktu
Raging archives
Bloodtipped we volley decades
Bossa nova centuries
jujuing mamboing bottle music highlifing rock
hopscotching millennia before sliding to rest
Not just going away into a tenuous frame
Unsaying “change will come”
“This too will pass”
In leaving while Elisabeth is at work
Holding what we hold in parallel
Kniving polite through her nice
imperious love is fugitivity
“Over the course of lunch
a peregrine falcon dismembers a pigeon” What a striking, visceral image to open with! The way it starts the process of creating the metaphor!
“waiting wanting wantoning
naked nape to mandoline” omg yes! to those -ings, to the naked nape to mandoline! This is gorgeous!
“jujuing mamboing bottle music highlifing rock
hopscotching millennia before sliding to rest ” yes! so much love for these ings! Love the construction of this piece! it’s so urgent and active!
“Holding what we hold in parallel ” Love this! A brief moment of status in such an urgent piece! bravo!
Clementine- Another fine piece of writing. A lot to like but my number 1 is: ““waiting wanting wantoning”.
Clementine!!! Whoa (or woah as the kids now spell it). This poem is so fresh, so full of life and death and sex and imagery that can’t stop, won’t stop! (Also, I swear I don’t use exclamation marks this much typically.)
Where my heart stops (in a good way):
“a peregrine falcon dismembers a pigeon”
“winding the chopsticks about with scarlet thread”
“naked nape to mandoline”
“Bloodtipped we volley decades
Bossa nova centuries
jujuing mamboing bottle music highlifing rock
hopscotching millennia before sliding to rest ”
This poem has a punk-rock ethos and I love this meditation on killing vacuous statements like “this too shall pass.” I want to spend so much time with this piece, to see it in fresh light for each time I read this poem something else reveals itself.
Beautiful and brilliant writing, Clementine!
High fives,
Kella
Yes, yes, and yes to the piece and everything commented on before me. I want to read this over and over, because the language is so vibrant. How is it not pure joy to say: “jujuing mamboing bottle music highlifing rock” Thanks for adding such spirit to my Sunday morning.
i love the language in this and the fun you have with the language, which is obvious to the reader. I really enjoyed this.
The wordplay in Timequake is superb. I see the first quake in the grassy enclosure outside the Tower of London, peregrine falcon and pigeon both part of the poem and part of the scenery, and then we’re off, quaking all the way, “hopscotching millennia before sliding to rest”. Wonderful title, too, all those layers upon layers.