SOMEONE ELSE
by Rae Armantrout
The glum mail carrier
arrives after dark.
—
You open your mouth:
“We” is a pity-party.
“I” is a Satanic cult.
Or it’s the other way around.
—
“Let’s pretend someone else
is blowing the bubbles!”
Painting the baubles.
Someone else
points and runs.
###
You must have me confused with someone else
You must have me confused with someone who gives a shit
You must have me confused with some other 55 year old bald white neuro divergent electric ass bathtub glum mail carrier
Armantrout has gotten my attention a few times in the past few years with her poems in the New Yorker. So few words. So much going on.
But the other other day I got my hands on her 21st book of poetry:
GO FIGURE
it’s a keeper
“Crystalline poems refract the meaning and irony of human existence; a clarifying, cagey reckoning with experience that may never add up.” –provided by publisher
spot on
Rae Armantrout and Joy Williams walk into a bar
The bartender says nothing: (speechless)
What if…
…only for an hour or so you could see the world through their eyes (Williams or Armantrout) not only their eyes, but their eyes wired to their brains processing the input and feeding it to your brain. An hour might be too much, too overwhelming.
Through their books I can only imagine.
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