Berry the mouth and thorn the finger.
Wash in the creek and hightail home.
Offer yourself to the porch light and Mama.
Thank God Daddy's still gone.
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Tuesday, January 12, 2016
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About Me
- Maude Lynn
- Anybody who has survived his childhood has enough information about life to last him the rest of his days. ---Flannery O'Connor
24 comments:
Adorable.
Salubrious
well written
Ah, you've done it again with a perfect start for my day, MZ!! Enjoy a beautiful weekend -- hopefully one that isn't gray and WET like mine!!
Days when Daddy's not home are the best...
When the dad is away, the family will play.
There's a weird, spooky element to this - why are we thanking God that Daddy's not home. Unsettling, which means it worked on me.
I agree with Buddah Moskowitz. It IS unsettling/creepy/sinister/dark.
Which means I like it as well...
Is something elicit going on?
Hmmm interesting
Much love...
I love "berry the mouth and thorn the finger", and offering herself to "the porch light and mama". I remember an incident under that porch light when I was 14, about a thousand years ago. LOL. My first kiss, and when the porch light suddenly flashed on, and my mom threw the door open, we both froze, thinking either we'd been hit by lightning or that was some crazy kiss. Hee hee.
I love the blend of teenage rebellion - or simply reaching out to life - with fairytales.
Daddy's molesting the daughter. She's putting sweets in her mouth (and probably overeating) as a form of comfort. It also says "bury the mouth" because she knows she can't tell. The thorned finger isn't just that she's being "pricked," but it also means that what he's done to her has turned her finger into a thorn. So now, because he's hurt her, she will hurt others. She just may not know it yet.
"hightail" suggests that as a teenager, she's getting high and giving up a little ass ... but again, all of this probably came about because she was/is abused.
There's a contrast between "offering" herself to the porchlight and Momma and NOT offering herself to Daddy. He just takes. The porchlight represents the tiny bit of light she's trying to shed on the situation, the little hints she's dropping. But she won't outright confess what's being done to her. Thus the "berries in the mouth." She's scared to tell, but she's dying for someone to just figure it out and help her.
"Wash in the creek" means that she feels dirty, even though it's not her fault and nothing's wrong with her. She will never believe it's anyone's fault but her own. She will probably go to her grave thinking she's filth(y) and deserves every pain/abandonment she ever gets.
There's also the possibility that the last line is telling those of us who are really paying attention that she killed her father. So "he's still gone." She might have been washing off blood/mud after killing and burying(berrying?) HIM. She's terrified of getting caught, I'm sure. But at least now she's safe from him.
"Berry the mouth" also makes me think of Daddy's "berries" in her mouth.
Sorry. It had to be said.
A bead of the infernal rosary. Account it and be counted.
This brings to mind those wonderfully terrifying nursery rhymes, which must be read while looking over one's shoulder: addictive, seemingly simple, uncanny...
The nouns as verbs in the opening work well.
Your poem is musical, thorny, and means something; also I agree with Magaly.
No, you were right. I'm a complete idiot and Kelli should delete my comment. I don't know why I can't control my mouth. I'm really sorry for offending you.
Hey MZ--sinister and musical and a lot of who knows what--it could also just be about a kind of calm-- I can't really say more--take care! k.
I imagine girls singing this while playing a clapping game. Sometimes going home has its own dreads.
I love this, Mom Z. I was there once, when Daddy came home I slipped out the back door. Feigning sleep that night, the next morning Daddy asked her what my car was doing parked on the street. Things we never forget.
..
Whew.
Cute, until the last line. A subtle horror movie nursery rhyme.
you are the master of the short piece which nonetheless speaks volumes. ~
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