The Reader
Sitting in the passenger's bucket seat
with her brown ringlets of hair
like Elizabeth Browning
she bent over a book.
We pulled up to the drive-thru.
"You want a shake or soda?
"
She shook off my question.
"Do you like music?" I asked,
straining
like a man at his oars,
the waves kicking up.
I was determined to crack
her silence.
"To the Lighthouse?
That's what you're reading?
Are you sworn to secrecy?"
I sighed, and lifted her chin
into the altitude of kisses.
Her green eyes welled up
behind turtle-shell glasses.
I pressed my lips to hers,
as if stamping gently
an image into wax--
something for her
to remember me by.
A chapter turned. This kiss
would be a bookmark
she would turn back to
again and again.
The Reader
-
CalebMurdock
- Posts: 196
- Joined: 10 Dec 2023, 14:59
Re: The Reader
I may be reading the poem wrong, but it doesn't make sense to me entirely.
The N is driving a car with a woman in the passenger seat, a woman he is attracted to, but she is resistant to his advances (?). The immediate question is, how did this situation come to pass? It seems implausible that she would be reading, given that reading is difficult in a moving car.
The woman passenger then allows the man to lift her chin, seemingly without resistance. Then, the passenger becomes emotional, her eye welling up, which doesn't seem to fit with her resistance. And then she lets the N kiss her.
I like the flow of the language -- your syntax is always good -- but I can't figure out the relationship between these two, or how they got to where they are in the poem.
At the end of the poem, the woman is portrayed as vulnerable more than resistant. Perhaps her resistance in the early part of the poem is due to hurt feelings -- but then, the early part of the poem seems to portray them as strangers.
The final stanza makes me feel a little uncomfortable for reasons that have to do with sexual politics. (The confident, in-control man has somehow manipulated the feelings and life of a woman.) Again, though, it's clear that I don't know what's happening in the poem.
Ultimately, it seems they have a relationship and have had a falling out of some kind, but the beginning of the poem doesn't hint at that. Perhaps if I were straight, I might grasp the poem better.
The N is driving a car with a woman in the passenger seat, a woman he is attracted to, but she is resistant to his advances (?). The immediate question is, how did this situation come to pass? It seems implausible that she would be reading, given that reading is difficult in a moving car.
The woman passenger then allows the man to lift her chin, seemingly without resistance. Then, the passenger becomes emotional, her eye welling up, which doesn't seem to fit with her resistance. And then she lets the N kiss her.
I like the flow of the language -- your syntax is always good -- but I can't figure out the relationship between these two, or how they got to where they are in the poem.
At the end of the poem, the woman is portrayed as vulnerable more than resistant. Perhaps her resistance in the early part of the poem is due to hurt feelings -- but then, the early part of the poem seems to portray them as strangers.
The final stanza makes me feel a little uncomfortable for reasons that have to do with sexual politics. (The confident, in-control man has somehow manipulated the feelings and life of a woman.) Again, though, it's clear that I don't know what's happening in the poem.
Ultimately, it seems they have a relationship and have had a falling out of some kind, but the beginning of the poem doesn't hint at that. Perhaps if I were straight, I might grasp the poem better.