Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Stripes

Stripes

On flags. Hoisted above homes,
a country’s bar code. Shutters
and venetian blinds, light blazing
from between the slats and then
diminishing. A heating vent
that we stand over in the winter,
instep eased over the metal.
Worn near the face to signify rank
and response. Button downs and
t-shirts, ties and ribbon, suggestion
of warfare and ease and sport,
of youth. Plowed fields viewed
from overhead, a carpet streaked
from the vacuum’s grasp, one
direction and then the other.
Saturated life spliced with absence,
an order we impose and label
as playful. Background muddled
with applied design, alternating
so that we cannot sort which
color and texture was there first,
a pattern not organic, but pleasing.

9 comments

  1. Loved this. A great idea. Thought-provoking and entertaining.

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  2. "Saturated life spliced with absence."

    Great image. Really. I mean it.

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  3. This is another of your great poems that makes you think in ways you have not thought before. I especially like, "a country's bar code," and "worn near the face to signify rank and response," That second one is a great shortcut to a much larger concept. I also like the closing lines, and how the opening line relates to the title, which is integral to the whole.

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  4. It's funny, I'm wearing stripes today and I like them very much.

    "A country's bar code" is perfect!

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  5. Marvelous use of metaphor, Hannah. The connections you draw are so evocative and thought-provoking. I especially like "Plowed fields viewed / from overhead, a carpet streaked / from the vacuum's grasp" and "life spliced with absence, / an order we impose and label".

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  6. Above, overhead, background, near and far---you, lovely, have such a gift of creating new perspective.

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  7. I really like this one - concrete images moving to some wonderful truths.

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  8. "Saturated life spliced with absence," I liked those lines, too.

    And the word "slats" -- I have it in a poem I'm currently working on, too. (A great word, isn't it?)

    Happy week of love! (Valentine's day, etc)

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