One of my favourite poems since childhood! It’s so silly and absurd and ridiculous! I remember as a child feeling very sorry for the poor oysters. It all seemed very unjust to me! Thank you for your reading.
Among the Gorgons For Eleanor For seventeen years I was caught in the surf. Drubbed and scoured, I’d snatch a breath and be jerked down again, dragged across broken shells and shingle. I loved it, mostly, the need, how I fed the frantic. I’d skipped into that sea. Certainly not a girl, but I could still turn a head as I took the foam between my thighs. Then it was over. Hiss of a match snuffed with spit. The sea had trotted off. I stood in the stink of flapping fish. At first it stung. A galaxy of dimes eyed my sag and crinkles and dismissed me like a canceled stamp, but something tugged at me, silver braids weaving and unweaving themselves and either the path was shrinking or I was getting bigger, for soon the way was just a hair, the extra bit of wit a grandma leaves on her chin to scare the boys, and it led me into a cave crackling like a woodstove with laughter. A landslide opened a seam of rubies and we stepped inside. Source: Poetry (January 2012)
One of my favourite poems since childhood! It’s so silly and absurd and ridiculous! I remember as a child feeling very sorry for the poor oysters. It all seemed very unjust to me! Thank you for your reading.
Question: in this song do both the carpenter and the Walrus eat them? In the Alice in Wonderland cartoon movie, the Walrus ate all of them.
Among the Gorgons
For Eleanor
For seventeen years I was caught in the surf.
Drubbed and scoured, I’d snatch a breath
and be jerked down again, dragged across
broken shells and shingle. I loved it,
mostly, the need, how I fed the frantic.
I’d skipped into that sea. Certainly not
a girl, but I could still turn a head as I took
the foam between my thighs.
Then it was over.
Hiss of a match
snuffed with spit. The sea had trotted off.
I stood in the stink of flapping fish.
At first it stung. A galaxy of dimes
eyed my sag and crinkles and dismissed
me like a canceled stamp,
but something tugged at me, silver braids
weaving and unweaving themselves
and either the path was shrinking
or I was getting bigger, for soon the way
was just a hair, the extra bit of wit
a grandma leaves on her chin
to scare the boys, and it led me
into a cave crackling like a woodstove
with laughter.
A landslide opened
a seam of rubies and we stepped inside.
Source: Poetry (January 2012)
It seems that yes they both did "they've eaten everyone" was in the original poem.