Bethany: I might post that poem I alluded to, but I'm a little worried that it's not that great.
Matt: if it is, I'll tell you.
this poem isn't about me (well, it is about me, because I wrote it, but it didn't happen to me. You can tell because there's jogging involved.)
On a Far-away Flood
As I jog on this machine,
January cold working loose from my legs,
television screens play footage
of a flood in Nevada –
and a man is flailing in a current
until a boat casts out rope –
he catches it.
And my entire being,
moving limbs and beating heart,
are caught up in the watching,
waiting for this man,
drenched face screaming relief,
to arrive in safety.
But before my eyes, the current
swept him away again.
He disappeared from the eye
of the news camera, and I couldn’t
see him anymore, and on my dry
Michigan treadmill, I was swimming
in Nevada too.
I just hope that guy’s okay.
About Me
- bethany
- I'm a Professor of Communication. I tend to blog about these things: christianity, politics, culture, academia, art, writing, music, and things I read.
2 comments:
Wait, if it's great I'm supposed to tell you... or was it only if it isn't? I think the later was what I had in mind, so I can definitively say, it's not "not that great." I liked that I could feel the effort and energy expended by both characters, but it wasn't over the top. It's nice.
When I read the title, I was like "Hmm, another tsunami poem" and right or wrong, I am a little bit tired of such things, so it was a welcome change of pace to see the flood happened in Nevada.
Does that sound selfish?
-Aaron
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