11/11/10

Ambient Poem in a Buenos Aires Apartment

a jar of dulce de lecheImage via Wikipedia
You will be

You will be
dreaming of panquecas con dulce de leche,
of a musician playing and everyone drinking mate,
of figure eights and caterpillars.

But until we leave for the campo,
I will be sitting out on the patio
knitting and writing
and twisting my hair.

I will be playing Simon says.
Simon says remember the people of the floor beneath us.
Simon says take off your white sweater when you crab walk up and over.
Simon says how about lunges?

Shoes can be a land mine.
Grape vines can go right, left.
And you have to walk over the obstacles.

There have to be obstacles.
You've got to get back to the start.
And I'm choosing this one, I think.
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13 comments:

Margaret said...

I found this poem I wrote in 2008. We were in Argentina, and these were all snatches of dialog that I picked up. Funny thing is, I never write poems, but I found this today when I was going over some old writing notebooks. I kind of like it.

Desiree said...

I LOVE IT! It gave me shivers to think I KNOW the author--

Curly said...

This is just BRILLIANT! Wow... do you have more of these poems? You've snatched it from a dialog... I know I tell you every time but I really think you're a genial writer!!!

Olga said...

Funny...snatches of dialog...they do make a poem--a truly found poem.

Pasadena Adjacent said...

I didn't know you were a knitter. Simon says "a lovely poem"

Joanne said...

Love the idea of random dialogue creating your verse. I can envision a collection of these, almost as a journal of places you've been.

Jean Spitzer said...

Ambient poem. Interesting and feels very place-specific.

Anonymous said...

We, of the Simon Clan, agree.

Petrea Burchard said...

Ambient poem--it's its own form. I love it--sat trying to figure out its meaning in specifics, then gave up and enjoyed its ambiance. I agree with Jean, it feels place-specific. You inspire me to try it.

Linda Dove said...

Oh, I love this! In poetry-speak, it's very post-avant. Really great.

Star said...

Love it! Thanks!
Reminds me of the art happening I had my ESL students do in celebration of the 'birthday' of Italian Futurism: we balled up a piece of paper, and smacked it around the room, anyone getting it had to open it, scribble a word quickly anywhere on the sheet, re-ball it, and re-smack it around. The 'poem' might not have been as interesting as yours, but they experienced some aspects of Futurism.

Watson said...

That pudding looks SOOOOO good! Loved the poem too! Time for more???

Carla said...

I definitely feel identified. I interpret it as if someone who understands there has to be time for reflection. Two years ago I got one of those buenos aires apartments and there was a patio at the back. I used to sat there drinking mate after coming back from a tour. I liked to think about what I had done during the day!