Wednesday, December 06, 2006

subject: cement smelling

there is Portuguese on the white-board
that reads 'i do not speak Portuguese'
and a piano in the center of the room

chairs and stands surrounding it and me

and so i hide in the pit

for a while - accidentally
scratching the cut on my shin

in this moment i bleed and cradle the scab
like an orphan would on the cushion of my ring-finger

where the nail has grown too long

now, in the same color as Portuguese
i write 'marie survived john's death in Portuguese'

and fail better at playing the halloween theme
on the sullen piano in the cement room
at

6 comments:

  1. B BoutwellDecember 07, 2006 2:41 PM

    Just a quick thought

    ---


    there is Portuguese
    on the white-board

    that reads 'i do not
    speak Portuguese'

    and in the room
    a piano in the center

    chairs and stands
    surrounding it and me

    so i hide in the pit
    for a while—accidentally

    scratching at the cut
    on my shin

    i bleed in this moment
    and cradle the scab

    like an orphan would
    on the cushion of my ring-

    finger where the nail has
    grown too long

    now, in the same color
    as Portuguese

    i write 'marie survived john's death
    in Portuguese'

    and fail better at playing
    on the sullen piano

    ReplyDelete
  2. katyDecember 07, 2006 2:45 PM

    i almost forced couplets on this. but it didn't come out that way. was feeling sort of hodge podge.

    i like where you broke a lot of the lines though. thank you brian!




    aaramyid

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousDecember 08, 2006 7:20 AM

    This sounds a lot like my silly classroom! (Which was so messed up on Thursday morning--it took me like five minutes of straight pushin' to get that piano out of the way!)

    ReplyDelete
  4. katyDecember 08, 2006 7:32 AM

    it is your silly classroom! ^_^ thanks for the inspiration!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. pot.of.teaDecember 09, 2006 8:11 PM

    I think it does work better as couplets, but keeping the original line breaks. And I love the first 2 lines! And the 'marie survived john's death in Portuguese' reference, of course. By the way, is that supposed to be 'marie survived john's death' in Portuguese?

    Are you studying Portuguese?

    ReplyDelete
  6. katyDecember 09, 2006 9:00 PM

    By the way, is that supposed to be 'marie survived john's death' in Portuguese?

    it's supposed to be what it is on the "page"

    ))marie survived john's death in Portuguese((

    i thought that was more fun. pretending and not at the same time that it was in Portuguese.

    and no dear, i'm not studying Portuguese ^_^ kate was going on the other day about the piano in the middle of her classroom and the Portuguese on the white-board and she kept asking "what goes on in there?" in a really cute whiny voice. i was inspired to write this on account of her description of the room she teaches in. so that's where the Portuguese comes in.

    ReplyDelete