The doctor said,
"This is what I found
inside her."
An orange
a white horse with one hoof up
Roberta Flack 'First Take' on vinyl
A river, rushing over smooth stones
and a knitting needle
through her heart.
The family sagged to one side a little
like a tent in wind.
The father said,
"You're talking nonsense."
The mother said nothing.
The husband said,
"Are you sure you had the right patient?
I could sue."
The best friend said,
"Of course you did."
"Where is the orange?"
the mother asked.
"I ate the orange."
"There was no horse,"
insisted the father.
"There was a herd."
The best friend smiled
but was silent.
The husband looked at his watch.
The mother added,
"If there was a knitting needle
through her heart,
she must have put it there herself."
The father waved his hand
and walked away.
The husband said,
"I wonder what all this will cost?."
The best friend asked
if she could see her.
The mother leaned on her husband
and walked away
carrying her purse
and her bag of knitting.
____________
for Dverse Meeting the Bar. "Magical Realism"
Music: Roberta Flack No Way To Say Goodbye
Filled with mystery and open to so much interpretation. I like to think that her best friend knew and just wanted to see her. Good one Shay. Thanks for joining in.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this.
ReplyDeleteAnd the best friend sighed and rode away on an awkward clippetty hop pause, hop pause, hop pause white horse clutching an orange wishing them all not well in their deceits and sadness. No one noticed.
Oh WOW!!!!!! I knew before the closing who put the knitting needle there. This is an astounding write. The way your insight creates these incredible poems is always an amazement to me. This one is especially good.
ReplyDelete"The best friend said, Of course you did.." This is a poem that skillfully combines the startling incongruity of the commonplace against a backdrop that hints of the outre, something that magical realism likes to use to illuminate a theme or an idea, like O'Keeffe's skulls floating in a purely normal clear blue sky. The list of 'what I found inside her," the family swaying like a tent, the orange eaten, all add to the feeling of real things made into the surreal or even into unreality. Only the best friend stays as an anchor. I love the Roberta Flack allusion as well. One of your more fascinating pieces, Shay.
ReplyDeleteWhat HW said!!!
DeleteBrilliant stanza for what is in her. And the sneaky dark ending with the mother...
ReplyDeleteIt's always the best friend who knows us best, sees us through the crap, and crappy relationships, of our lives. You tell it just so poetically perfectly, Shay. Never trust a knitter, or so I read somewhere.
ReplyDeleteYou have such a way of describing things! It is unequalled. This I love:
ReplyDelete"The family sagged to one side a little
like a tent in wind."
and the whole narrative that ensued after that. I absolutely love magical realism. And it is your main language so you didn't have to try. A corker, as usual, Shay, Shay!
Gotta love best friends! Great poem, Shay!
ReplyDeleteYvette M Calleiro :-)
http://yvettemcalleiro.blogspot.com
You work your magic with divine realism, Shay. I could feel the imagery of the second stanza fleshed out in the figures, familiar by now to us, ready to walk away except for one. For all that, the patient is alive and stable, while the rest are "sagged to one side a little
ReplyDeletelike a tent in wind."