The Shore
Here, look at their bodies. Even clothed,
their skin is near to the surface, Jwoww’s
powerful breasts, Mike’s self-exposed
abs. Every part is eventually eased out
for us to see by heat, the beach, shots
ten to a tray, bright blue, for free.
New and nameless lovers. Curls, squats,
the treadmill. Gym, tanning, the laundry:
each day, they control how they are seen.
We love them for it, hair extensions
and fake nails whipping across the screen.
Their dedication to pleasure stuns
us, and how easily they announce
their needs. I’ve gotta get it in tonight,
they say, and go to Karma, flounce
across the dance floor, pull a human tight
against them, and breathe into their neck,
Wanna see the house? We do, we look
on as they destroy the place, they wreck
it. After, we’re surprised how long it took.
very musical and cute. The word 'cute' used with respect to your 'savyness' of word usage to describe a keen perceptiveness.
ReplyDeleteThanks! Your wonderful as always.
Love this, Hannah. I'm always struck by how advertisers hint that your whole life will be solved and wonderful if you lose weight or whatever external thing it is. Uh, nooo.
ReplyDeleteFashion as big business, selling sex and affluence. Yuck.
ReplyDeleteI am wondering, after reading "Shore" whether the techniques we use as poets to create ekphrastic poetry work when the subject can be said to be un-art, or even anti-art.
ReplyDelete"Shore" (from my point) seems to engage with a certain tv reality show, and this leaves me questioning the ways that art can intersect and interact with other media in the ways noted above. Do you, as an artist, see "Shore" as a critique (implicit or otherwise) of contemporary, media-mediated cultures? And, if so, to what extent is it, and other, similarly focussed poems, successful?
Umm, nene says "cute" -- I wouldn't use that word to describe any of your poetry, but then, I suppose, each reader brings to each poem something different, eh?
ReplyDeleteI like this phrase, "how easily they announce
their needs" and the ending, how we were surprised how long it too.
A (unique) voyeuristic look at self-destruction (at least that was my reading of your poem).