If I am a star
slow-moving in space,
stuck, quivering,
like the nose of Cupid’s bow
in some lovely lady’s breast --
you are the god, the almighty,
why do you not let me
spin,
shoot,
rise,
drag along in coal-mine night
the glass bodies of angels through the nebulae,
but instead watch me as I languish,
laugh at my inconsequence,
throw me like an empty vessel
into the wine-dark sea.
I imagine this is based on what happens to scientologists when they die. Joking! I'm joking, of course. But I do feel like maybe I'm hearing a love story. Or a loss of love. Like a break-up perhaps. Maybe it was the "cupid's bow" reference or the "watch me as I languish." It sounds like something somebody would say if they were perhaps, going through something dramatic, some pain that may have been caused by an outside force, which is why my mind takes me to relationships and the loss of love. "Glass bodies of angels through the nebulae" is such a beautiful piece of poetry and the use of language is interesting and unique, and it also paints this wide scaling picture for me in my head, and I'm wondering if it's a metaphorical coal mine or a literal coal mine, but I like to think it's metaphorical since we poets types usually go the metaphorical route in such instances. "I'm a star in some lovely ladys breast" can be taken as sexual, but I'm guessing it's more of a maternal kind of breast, rather then a sexual kind of breast. Like a baby trying to receive milk from her mother. So that may greater change the entire theme of the poem. The person in question could a mother figure, a former lover or maybe something different entirely, and maybe I'm completely wrong. But hey! Poetry is an opinion, and each reader can take there own interpretation out of it, I guess thats one of the great things about poetry. Nice work, once again Zoe.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to hear your interpretation, Robert! To be very honest, I didn't even think it through that much when I was writing this poem! The Cupid's bow and god references allude to the Classics -- I had a very rigorous training in the Classics in high school, so I think this and my Penelope poem are a reflection of that. I think the love, loss of love idea was what I was subconsciously going for when writing this piece -- as if the stomach feels unused, unloved, and unvalued by the mind of the bulimic.
Delete