"Talent hits a target no one else can hit; genius hits a target no one else can see." --Arthur Schopenhauer
She dab on lipstick.
She marry a man what's goin somewhere.
Mama Gator clean the house til it beg her stop.
She pretend her tail a train.
She crank out two nassy little boy gators.
Oh what was I thinkin
Steppin into that hell?
What was I in for
Still drippin shell?
Mama Gator scared tea ladies smell swamp on her.
She say don't touch me.
She sweep up her dropped scales in a right rush.
All the while
She smile.
Mama Gator say
Girl, you ugly.
Girl, you nassy.
Just keep goin like you are,
And you find out how that be.
What the neighbor's think?
What will people say?
Girl, come to Mama,
So she can tell you go away.
Got a little soft beatin heart,
Let Mama tear that shit apart.
You as shiny as a twice-washed dish.
You not my daughter.
You not worth spit.
You're like your father,
You little bitch.
Mama see and Mama know
Just how deep the deep can go.
Mama grab and Mama roll
But now she do it all alone.
And all the while
She smile.
for dverse poetics with Charles Miller.
"All the while she smile." Such great lines as a rhythmic change-up. (What a photo of the gator in action!)
ReplyDeleteMama G. needs to have a close encounter with the Swamp People. They've got a cure for all that rolling and ripping,....and think of the boots. They'd be a much better use of those scales. Bite and blood to this one, and the philosophy of survival never goes out of style.
ReplyDelete"Mama Gator clean the house til it beg her stop." I love that. And, the death roll stanza is brilliant.
ReplyDeleteMy, oh my...
ReplyDeleteYou are the maestro of the poetic voice.. this persona is 100% original Fireblossom fabulous...
...and Mama Gator knows how to take the sweet with the sour of this swamp-hole life!
You gotta live where you live and accept it as part of who you is. Mama knows that and in her will to live she got it down to an art. You gotta love a gal that knows she is for what she is and is proud of it. That be takin responsibility for who you is and who you tain't. But mama can be mean, and it's too bad she gotta make others feel that way too. But it is what it is, I guess, and you gotta be who you is. I like the honesty of this and I appreciate the artistry, it has the sound and roll of life lived for what it can give, since there's not much besides, I guess. Irony cuts both ways, and perhaps that is best exemplified here. Because irony not only chops what is into pieces, in the chopping comes a jambalaya whose taste of possibility brings dreams beyond the swamp, I think. But that's just me.
ReplyDeletemama gator sounds like she feels trapped a bit in her world so she is taking it out on the kids she despises...all too real in my line of work...of course she is probably unappreciated by dad on his way somewhere...
ReplyDeleteFirst, I read the quote about genius hitting a target no one else can see, thinking: Fireblossom! Then read this spectacular poem of pure maternal nassy-ness which is absolutely out of the ballpark perfect! Which proved the quote to perfection. I rest my case.
ReplyDeletegators and love don't easily come together - the girl that doesn't want to be boxed in is pictured in a box - is this the irony?
ReplyDeleteFuckin' A, Shay. Now that's a crazylovely coonass poem if there ever was one. I hereby decree that it should be the State Poem of Louisiana!!! LOVE IT!! xo
ReplyDeleteWuh...wow! Love it. Yeah...what they said! ha
ReplyDeleteBreathtaking imagery throughout...thoroughly enjoyed.
ReplyDeleteWonderful.
Peace,
Siggi in Downeast Maine
So you've met my first stepmother then?
ReplyDeleteAwww...such a touching photo. Really brings a tear to my eye. *sniff*
ReplyDeleteI read this poem in a cajun accent. Was I doing it right?
"And all the while
ReplyDeleteShe smile." - chilling (even more so when couple with that photo)
I loved the staccato rhythm of this, Shay.
That is one Mama I wouldn't want to mess with.
You are a master with words! This is fantastic.....
ReplyDelete"all the while she smile.
Awesome,
xo jj
"She dab on lipstick."
ReplyDeleteMama Gator got her prioriteeez straight, now don' she?
oh my, oh my! those southern girls can be real bitches when they wanna be!
damn, girl! isn't it time for you to go back to work and stop writing so much? {{{whining as i walk away "can't she EVER write anything less than amazing?}}}
''...and all the while she smile ..." dear mama what big teeths you got mon
ReplyDeleteI like that dialect.
ReplyDeleteYou, my dear, are genius. I've seen way too many Mama Gators and way too many of their victims. Their special brand of mothering really fucks up some good people.
ReplyDelete