Friday, November 1, 2013

Fruitful and Multiplying

(a fragment from an essay-in-progress)

“Strange fruit.” A teenage boy looked out the window of the full bus, and announced this, as you might point out landmarks that we pass (“My sister took a guitar lesson there once,” or “Best pancakes in the city”). A few of the bus passengers looked over, and then noticed the earbuds trailing out from under his hood, leading into his pocket. Plugged in.

In this order, I thought:
  • He is listening to Kanye West’s “Blood on the Leaves,” which samples Billie Holiday’s song.
     
  • He is singing along with Kanye West but really he is singing along with Billie Holiday,
     
  • Billie Holliday’s song borrows its lyrics from a poem.
     
  • In the bus it is 1930 and 2013.


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Fun to share something completely unfinished with you today--happy Friday! What projects are you starting/working on (or abandoning for the weekend)?

2 comments

  1. I like the topic. I was pretty sure I knew "strange fruit" as a phrase related to race, but I couldn't and still cannot recall the details. So your essay-to-be seems headed for something connected to racial and musical issues, then and now.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I am overhauling my site. 38 poems deleted, three can be possibly salvaged. New set of standards, hundreds of rhyming words freed for re-use.

    ReplyDelete

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