You're Like Me In That Way
A grappling hook of comparison
or an even trade, an emulsion.
You’re like me in that way,
you and I are the same.
Two reliefs: in reflection
or reduction.
Bowling ball rolling,
capsized pins.
What are you like,
what are you.
What came first, the boundary or the identity?
ReplyDeleteAll's I know is that they bowl with candlepins in Massachusetts, duckpins in Connecticut and ten-pins in New York (a deep regional mystery along the lines of why the same sandwich is called a grinder in Massachusetts, a submarine in Connecticut, and a hero in New York).
Everyone's happy until they look over the fence.
This poem, to me, is less clearcut than some of your others, inviting me to think about the ways we differ and the ways we are the same (meaning humans), kind of like a venn diagram in the ways we touch or overlap. In the power of impact, bowling balls rolling and capsized pins, do we ever meet?
ReplyDeleteReflection or reduction... very cool. Like Annie said, it makes me think about the many ways we are quite different as individual and unique human beings, while still being very much the same in some very fundamental ways.
ReplyDeleteThis made me think about Kohut and his ideas about how Twinship transference are important for development. "You are just like me and I am just like you" is a necessary stage of development.
ReplyDeleteThe last line surprised me. I have never before added a word to your poems. But when I read "What are you like,
what are you" I found that I couldn't stop myself from adding "like".