the kitchen

hillary joyce

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Dec 12, 1996, 3:00:00 AM12/12/96

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my italian grandmother
from naples
in her pastel plaid housedress
and pale blue scuffies,
bra straps tight atop
a fatty upper arm that hung in
two clumps like halves of a kumquat;
i remember small tufts of clown-red hair
in weed-like wiggle from the pit of her
arm, and a forehead, creased from
the furrow of jesus christ and pasta
sweat making marks on luminous
brown skin. there were times
in the cramped, easy kitchen,
amidst the sparse yellowed daisies
and yellow everything that
matched, oranges and
red counter tops that looked
like spilled italy that
we talked, spoke a word about
the day or boys,
their fast ways and to be careful
in the woods but mostly
we just sat eating apples,
cut in fours, seeds removed. centered in a
warmed hovel, light slipping through
a window facing west,
quietly nudging our
paltry congregation,
we, the girl with the spindly braids,
and the nana with the warm rolled body.

--

hillary joyce
the herbert f. johnson museum of art
cornell university
ha...@cornell.edu

chelsea corazon

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Dec 13, 1996, 3:00:00 AM12/13/96

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This is wonderful. this is what the boys are missing, hunched over a box
in the living room calling the plays and awaiting the instant replays.
Your poem is a Cassatt for the the latter half of the 20th century.
~Chelsea~

Kim Hodges

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Dec 15, 1996, 3:00:00 AM12/15/96

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In article <58sp2n$f...@sun.sirius.com>,

>>hillary joyce

>This is wonderful. this is what the boys are missing, hunched over a box
>in the living room calling the plays and awaiting the instant replays.
>Your poem is a Cassatt for the the latter half of the 20th century.
> ~Chelsea~

I agree. Terrific poem -- excellent rich, warm details. It made
me think of Vermeer, with the light through the window.

- Kim

S.T.V.C.

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Dec 16, 1996, 3:00:00 AM12/16/96

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This one evoked lots of warm memories. Really love this poem. Liked your
other too, Hillary. I got lucky. We had no tv, and I eventually
discovered the kitchen.
--
Steve

David Swanson

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Dec 16, 1996, 3:00:00 AM12/16/96

to

In article <590usp$g...@nyx.cs.du.edu>
kho...@nyx.cs.du.edu (Kim Hodges) writes:

> >This is wonderful. this is what the boys are missing, hunched over a box
> >in the living room calling the plays and awaiting the instant replays.
> >Your poem is a Cassatt for the the latter half of the 20th century.
> > ~Chelsea~
>
>
> I agree. Terrific poem -- excellent rich, warm details. It made
> me think of Vermeer, with the light through the window.
>
> - Kim

I agree, too, except for Chelsea's bit about "the boys." Imagine such
a reference to "the girls busy chattering away in the kitchen".
Wouldn't this produce a flood of responses informing us how many women
love sports? Or are the rules of conversation different in r.a.p.?

David
"Why, from Socrates downwards, philosophers should have vied with each
other in scorn of the knowledge of the particular and in adoration of
that of the general, is hard to understand, seeing that the more
adorable knowledge ought to be that of the more adorable things, and
that the THINGS of worth are all concretes and singulars." W. James

Robert Maughan

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Dec 17, 1996, 3:00:00 AM12/17/96

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David Swanson <dc...@darwin.clas.virginia.edu> writes

>Or are the rules of conversation different in r.a.p.?
>

Very different ..if you fuck with the babes you get your eyes scratched
out.
--
RJM.

David Swanson

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Dec 20, 1996, 3:00:00 AM12/20/96

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In article <196gZvAp...@etymon.demon.co.uk>
Robert Maughan <r...@etymon.demon.co.uk> writes:

Only missionaries hafta... oh nevermind, it ain't so. I've only talked
to Chelsea and she's been very nice.

chelsea corazon

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Dec 21, 1996, 3:00:00 AM12/21/96

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Nice? NICE?? Just call me Tondelayo, Meetster Swantson, soldeeur of
fortoon from the Alta Pomo Outpost.
~Chelsea~

(ObMovie: White Cargo (1942) starring Hedy Lamarr, Walter Pidgeon.)

David Christopher Swanson

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Dec 22, 1996, 3:00:00 AM12/22/96

to

In article <59fbep$9...@sun.sirius.com>
chelsea corazon <kare...@sirius.com> writes:

> Nice? NICE?? Just call me Tondelayo, Meetster Swantson, soldeeur of
> fortoon from the Alta Pomo Outpost.
> ~Chelsea~
>
> (ObMovie: White Cargo (1942) starring Hedy Lamarr, Walter Pidgeon.)

ESPERGESIA:
Yo naci' un di'a que Dios estuvo enfermo.

(For gringos that's My excuse is God was sick on the day I was born.)

Obpoet: Vallejo, who also said:

Ir muriendo y cantando. Y bautizar la sombra
con sangre babilo'nica de noble gladiador.
Y rubricar los cuneiformes de la a'urea alfombra
con la pluma del ruisenor y la tinta azul del dolor.

La vida? Hembra proteica. Contemplarla asustada
escaparse en sus velos, infiel, falsa Judith;
verla desde la herida, y asirla en la mirada,
incrustando n capricho de cera en un rubi'.

DCS

See my swell homepage at http://faraday.clas.virginia.edu/~dcs2e