This poem is a wicked delight of compression. At the outset, we see it’s a family that grows its own cabbages, yet the boy has already positioned himself somewhere far away, psychically. He’s very aware of the brand of sneakers he has.
That awareness of his difference gets us ready for him to notice the deception of the mantis, and his attraction to the deception, to the mantis’s apparently devoted but really rebellious stance before a power figure. A seductive transgression.
“…still in deceptive devotion.
Spike-lined
limbs fold to an
unruly God, how any
preacher's son enchants.”
This is quite a “wow” poem. Looking forward to the reading! Thanks for this enticing introduction.
This poem is a wicked delight of compression. At the outset, we see it’s a family that grows its own cabbages, yet the boy has already positioned himself somewhere far away, psychically. He’s very aware of the brand of sneakers he has.
That awareness of his difference gets us ready for him to notice the deception of the mantis, and his attraction to the deception, to the mantis’s apparently devoted but really rebellious stance before a power figure. A seductive transgression.
“…still in deceptive devotion.
Spike-lined
limbs fold to an
unruly God, how any
preacher's son enchants.”
This is quite a “wow” poem. Looking forward to the reading! Thanks for this enticing introduction.