Heirlooms

you once dreamed

of a melon

and the boy

who butchered it

with a ballpoint pen

as though he was carving out

the back of the neck

of the white man

who killed his father

long ago on the

Nebraska prairie

 

but now those

melons

sit neatly in a room

under the glow of

ultraviolet lamps

aside the petri dishes

and you watch contently

as the whirring meters

pump plasma into them

and yes

you can feel it inside

 

an eyeball can be peeled

you say

but not like a grape

and anyway

melons should not be tampered with

those small citadels of virtue

wisdom and power

much too much

like us

when we sleep

 

 

 

 

Reviews

[Ern M. Yoshimoto]

a very interesting work. finding a connection between history with the present, the personal with the historical, melons and the spirit world. sharp writing: i really felt like being in this strange room with UV lights and a basket of fruit. but more than that, there are many sentiments floating around in the air.

[SkinlessFrank]

Thanks Erin. Yes, all these different worlds spin around when one goes into the writing trance. I am trying to retrieve that state-of-mind. I appreciate your thoughts.

[Eilis]

I have an entire world where my dreams take place. I’ve never been there in real life but I have a house and a public space that I go to over and over and it’s gotten to the point that I recognize I’m dreaming when I get there. Such terrifying and surreal things happen there but in a way it is as much a part of me as the tangible world.

Your poem sort of feels like that to me. It’s like the mind creates these universes for us to inhabit and the things we can’t comprehend in waking we may meet in sleep. I’m not sure. The surreal nature of the boy carving the melon as symbolic of carving the killer’s neck and the peeling of the eyeball do not detract from the more prosaic daily ness of the laboratory with its harsh light and order. But even there we question what we experience.

The melons are a closed universe as long as they are unblemished. No one knows what’s inside until they are punctured or cut to expose them to the light and air. Unlike us they do not have the ability to heal from these intrusions but like us they are both fragile and mysterious. The connection is an interesting one to think about.

The boy at the start makes me think of a William Faulkner or Flannery O’Connor character. The wounds we suffer make us into something that isn’t always definable. And I’ve always felt that dreams are where we work those things out to some extent, often in nightmarish ways. I’m not sure if this feels like a nightmare or not. It feels somewhere between recognition and aversion.

[SkinlessFrank]

It's odd isn’t it that dreams have their own internal logic that makes sense during the dream but once awake are incomprehensible. O’Connor’s writing often has passages that seem like dreams to me. One (of many) that come to mind is from Wise Blood when Enoch steals the mummy from the museum and proclaims it the “new jesus”. Your comments always leave me with something to ponder about and make me wonder how did you learn to analyze things so deeply?

[Eilis]

Thinking (analyzing) deeply is a compulsion for me, along with it goes the curse of overthinking and driving oneself crazy with thought. I just have a need to make sense of things that drives my thought forward. I did get my bachelors and masters degrees through online studies which required a lot of independent work. I think my interest in analyzing literature and creative writing started there. I find I’m always searching for answers in others’ words.

[. serah .]

-- wow... this piece is very intriguing for me... -- the most obvious question in my mind is about "small citadels of virtue/ wisdom and power" and whether the speaker in this poem loves human beings so much that he is saying that they are small citadels... -- the next question is about the last line... -- "when we sleep" for me is about the subconscious mind... -- the dream state... and this then ties to the first line... and makes me wonder if this was one of those lucid dreams that ended in a good way... or if the speaker is trying to sort things out by writing about the dream... -- i have a massive lucid dreaming problem... which rages like a forest fire from time and time... but most of them are nightmares... terribly nasty ones... -- unlike this piece, they don't leave me thinking about the human mind and its potential in a peaceful way...

p.s. the way you've written this piece is amazing... it teaches the reader how to write an allegory/extended metaphor... -- the use of the word "and" in line three is spectacular... -- it gives one an insight into how two apparently disconnected images (the melon and the boy) can be connected... -- so thank you for the poetry lesson...

[SkinlessFrank]

thanks sereh....your interpretation is right on....i am plagued by lucid dreams night after night....something i consumed?

[. serah .]

-- the privilege is all mine, Maestro D. ... -- i'm going through a phase of lucid dreaming as well these days... trying to break the pattern... at least in my case, it has nothing to do with what i've consumed... -- my problem is that i am an excruciatingly quiet person in the real world and i tend to internalize things that i should be expressing... that's why i try my best to write a lot... -- but i dunno if this is the case with you too...

-- are you excruciatingly quiet too, Maestro D. ? ...

[SkinlessFrank]

.. painfully shy

[. serah .]

-- oh, no... that could well be the problem... it's definitely so in my case...

[Orlando Murcia]

Such an amazing write, different than what I usually read...

Great work

[L]

This one especially fascinated me. I think it's the idea of melons as citadels of virtue like us. It hung around in my mind like small change you can never seem to spend. Impressive piece :)

[Emily B]

oh, all the pretty little words, with the pumping blood

it is good to visit you today

[Muse]

an eyeball can be peeled

you say

but not like a grape

And you know this how? lol

A delightful read Frank...thank you for sharing. :D

[sienikeha]

extraordinary. such a simple muse. such plump thoughtstreams!

[Poetic Justice]

you are unique..and I missed you also..I find your work funny but disturbing..a wonderful combination.

[Baby Ricochet]

WOW! I feel like I'm trespassing over here on the front lawn of the big poet's frat house. Puts into perspective the crap i write