Sheathed in light

after Jericho Brown

It was a thing of awe whether for deathless gods or mortal men to see: from its root grew a hundred blooms -Homeric Hymn 2 to Demeter



The many lights of suburban evenings
fall over asphalt like torn clothes.

The many lights of suburban evenings
spill into cul-de-sacs at half past 12.

The many lights of suburban evenings
fall between shadows on damp grasses

and expose the limp bodies of girls.
When I was a girl, I did more than

my share of drinking. In the light
on the faces of boys- the ones

who groomed so carefully under
the bright lights of suburban bath

room fixtures. White light pouring
over plans growing like mushrooms

in the dim corners of their minds. My
first time, was not a thing of beauty.

Well, not for me. I only remember waking
under the moon, with nothing but shame

to cover me. But maybe someone,
swaying drunk in a suburban midnight

doorway, looked out on the evening,
the way suburban light threw itself

on a distant naked form, peppered
with grass and dew, and felt a sense

of the elegance of the defenseless
shining through a blinding intoxication:

like the rape of Persephone. Her creamy
white skin glinting under the cold light

of a new spring sky. The silence of the white
sun swallowing her like a man’s cold outlines

Author's Note

I’m still working on this, but interested in if it is confusing. I think it is, but I’m not 100% sure.

Reviews

[Linda Marie Van Tassell]

You drank more than your share, became shattered in the glass of youth, its poisonous truth. Life demands a poetic voice and a poetic view. It's the one truly refined way to paint such moments with grace, to take the shards and paint prisms of light. The line breaks for me are interesting. I'm so disciplined with form that this seems unusual for me. It's actually a good way to create the jagged edges of the experience. Well penned.

[Eilis]

Thanks, Linda. For me, enjambment is important in poems like this, for the exact reason you said. I always feel like structure is a great tool for conveying a sense of emotional distress or just for bringing attention to the disjointed nature of the subject matter.

I appreciate all you have to say on this. Your ideas regarding grace are excellent. Thanks again.

[CD Campbell]

I dont know if anything in this poem could be aligned with innocence. Maybe the losing of it, but that is torn away with the second line along with the clothes. You paint a very dark picture of someone taking what they should not. It is there with the idea growing like a mushroom under false light. We all know of these things happening, but I've never understood why alcohol was to blame, when the darkness inside the animal has always been there. Guess some have the mentality that they can take what they want when they should know better, but that's easy for me to say. I've had drunk chicks throw themselves at me and I can't say I'm innocent, but if I wanted to throw off unwanted attention I could. This poems a damn cold shower.

I want to digress from the subject and shift to the form and say that I like the repetition in the first line for the first three stanzas and the way the fourth hits, it hits like a hammer. The middle stanzas with the finely groomed boys with terrible plans fills one with dread. The ending as a Greek tragedy with the rape of persephone adds a touch of beauty in trying to understand why these things happen, can't be understated. All in all it is a story that one can follow that makes you jump back and forth in time, but illustrates predator and prey and unwarranted, but confusing shame in the best poetic way possible. Sorry, I could only read this one way due to my sex.

[Eilis]

This is something I’ve tried to write about several times, but it’s always been so abstract it only ever had meaning to me. I read the Jericho Brown poem (on my profile page) the other day and I was so struck by the impact of it that I thought maybe I ought to try again.

You bring up a lot of valid points, and like in his poem, there’s an ambiguity to a lot of life experience that makes it difficult to paint it in one light. I have come in contact with a lot of predatory guys. Many have made choices for me. I don’t really know what to say, honestly.

The alcohol was more a backdrop for me. It was a problem I developed and a problem that led me to trouble, but it’s human action that is ultimately to blame for outcomes. I was just hoping to show how things are not singular, and that while one person moves on another becomes riddled with the impacts of decisions. I don’t know.

Your comment is very helpful. You’ve seen what I wanted seen and you seemed to move between states in reading which was what I wanted also. Sometimes it’s easy to put stuff up until it’s understood. But it’s good to have it understood. Thanks for reviewing this, CD. I appreciate your particular approach and honest response.

[CD Campbell]

Yup, I'm awesome. 10 more greenstamps for me. That blender is slowly getting into my reach.

[Eilis]

Yup, awesome indeed. I have another custom book of poetry star stamps with your name on them :D