Bob - Chris Losinger
cdl...@ritvax.isc.rit.edu
bob wants the wind to blow
constantly
because as a kite
he'd be happy
on a string in the sky
pulling against the ground forever
he'd be the only one happy
"why does the wind blow so much?
only good for kites and sailboats
and damned if i got a sailboat."
----
beef jerky is
leather
soaked in salty beef soup
for a hundred years
is what bob wishes
he could have for dinner
every night for a week
...and pepsi
----
what if one day the sun didn't set
but stayed out all night
like a lost cat
that found it's way home
late the next day
but scared everyone silly
the whole night long
we'd remember that night
for a long time
that's what bob wants
for the day when he dies
that the sun will stay out
all night long
so everyone will "remember
when bob died?
the sun didn't set
but stayed out all night
like a lost cat...
"
----
when the sun went down
the cat stayed
out all night, bob found out
by waiting on the steps till daylight
but later after a bit
the cat came back
and meowed at bob
scolding him
for not letting her have her freedom
she felt trapped
lately
and needed some time to herself
now bob sulks on tiptoes
to give the cat space
while the cat looks at him
and shakes her head
men
----
bob's brother says "Bob,
when i was a kid
i had this girl
and how
and she dumped me
and i thought about killing myself
i thought she was something special, then
but i never quite did
and now that i'm older i'm glad
i never quite did it
cause since then
i've got to dump plenty of chicks
and i never talk to them again
so i don't know but
but, i kinda hope
that they felt like killing themselves
cause that's what it's all about
you know?
that's how it always ends up
but you gotta be the one dumping
cause feeling like you want to kill yourself
over losing someone
that's the worst
worse than anything
cause dead seems like the only place where she isn't
but it's too scary to go there.
so Bob,
don't worry about the cat
there are other cats. God."
Marek Lugowski
My God indeed. Or god. Or < >. I love this poem. In fact, I
progresively love this poem better as I re-read it, as I progressively
loved it more reading it for the first time. The fragment with jerky
and pepsi, just the attention itself used to lay it out, is rendered
with max expertise...
Chris takess everyday, well, if beef jerky is your idea of everyday,
particulars and titrates life using them (oops, wrong commentary?)
into us in precisely calibrated least reactive concentrations to
detect authenticity/realness.
Simply put, Chris's "Bob" is calm, all the while raging. To do this
one has to step out of the adjectival mode of painting the world with
unedited "feelings" or "sensations". This is skill, and hard work.
I admit that I remain under the spell of Kabuki Macbeth seen with Jenn
at U of I -- who wouldn't! -- so do allow me to call this a kabuki love
grievance worry story. It's sparse. It does not rest its tired limbs
clad in voluptuous smells and wishing wells. It's art is strong,
graceful, which means carefully brewed, adjusted and done just so.
I urge everyone to study this poem, in between, of course, repeated
and intensive sessions of enjoying it...
Thank you, Chris. All the donuts you want, mon. And pepsi?
Signed,
(.planning) To become a poster child for Coca Cola Co.,
-- Marek
P.s. Jenn, I tried to roll over and go to sleep, but then the urge to
make an exotic New Mexico-style picante tuna/egg/sour cream/onion salad
simply overwhelmed me, and then one thing lead to another... :(
Janet Dowd
Simply put, this is one tight, precise piece of art, Chris.
I LOVED it!
Her
[chris l:]
> bob wants the wind to blow
(poem deleted, but go back and read it if you haven't already!)
[marek:]
>I admit that I remain under the spell of Kabuki Macbeth seen with Jenn
>at U of I -- who wouldn't! -- so do allow me to call this a kabuki love
>grievance worry story. It's sparse. It does not rest its tired limbs
>clad in voluptuous smells and wishing wells. It's art is strong,
>graceful, which means carefully brewed, adjusted and done just so.
i disagree, not with your "strong graceful carefully brewed"
rantings, but with the yet-again kabuki metaphor. a tea
ceremony perhaps. :) kabuki is highly and obviously stylized.
it knows knows knows that it is art. this poem is carefully
stylized but it is not so obviously deliberate as kabuki. in my
opinion, you're doing it a disservice with the comparison.
besides, there are no notes for the ki percussionist.
>I urge everyone to study this poem, in between, of course, repeated
>and intensive sessions of enjoying it...
>P.s. Jenn, I tried to roll over and go to sleep, but then the urge to
>make an exotic New Mexico-style picante tuna/egg/sour cream/onion salad
>simply overwhelmed me, and then one thing lead to another... :(
just don't let it happen again. brat.
--jjh
Marek Lugowski
Her <jjh5...@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu>
Best Loved Jennifer in Midwest:
>ma...@MCS.COM (Marek Lugowski) wrote:
I admit that I remain under the spell of Kabuki Macbeth seen with Jenn
at U of I -- who wouldn't! -- so do allow me to call this a kabuki love
grievance worry story. It's sparse. It does not rest its tired limbs
clad in voluptuous smells and wishing wells. It's art is strong,
graceful, which means carefully brewed, adjusted and done just so.
[jenn:]
i disagree, not with your "strong graceful carefully brewed"
rantings, but with the yet-again kabuki metaphor. a tea
ceremony perhaps. :) kabuki is highly and obviously stylized.
it knows knows knows that it is art. this poem is carefully
stylized but it is not so obviously deliberate as kabuki. in my
opinion, you're doing it a disservice with the comparison.
besides, there are no notes for the ki percussionist.
[marek:]
"rantings"? You're out of control, Jenn. You mean raves, or
ravishings, or rupture, or maybe even Road Trip Over the Terrain of
High Praise... but rantings?...
The yet-again kabuki metaphor is no more stylized than the tea
ceremony. "Bob" is viceral, immediate and believable, but his story,
food desires and worries are highly stylized. As a lapsed vegetarian,
you should have noticed the stylized bread, Body of Christ (beef
jerky), and His Blood (pepsi), the stylized wine. You don't *really*
expect Bob to eat exactly that every day in Real Bob Life, do you?
His desire to do so *is* stylization, and as ostensible as any kabuki.
And you call yourself an English major? Sheesh. Perhaps you and
jeske should go sit out on the quad or something and spend yourselves
in a rite of spring orgy of misinterpreting subtle texts. Or
something.
The ki soundtrack *is* the sound of one small forward-falling of words
(after another) in this quiet sequoia forest solitude of a poem.
Be still, My Heart, and ye shall hear it...
Yup. Definitely kabuki love grievance worry story all the way.
-- Marek
Janet Dowd
Now, Chris, what would YOU like to tell us about YOUR poem?
cdl...@ritvax.isc.rit.edu
Well, Bob is, as I told Marek, Stephen Dixon stories filtered through
my home town... plus a bunch of things I always wanted to do - like eat
beef jerky all day for a week. Figure the rest out yourself :)
-c