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| Mary Jo Bang Cursive Landscape August/September 2003 In the reverse psychology of earnestness, more suddenly meant less. Every tear was a crocodile hanging from the underlid. Every nose had its neat dot of moisture. And for wisdom, there was the Dali Lama. Who would have thought that a sensible scheme put down in print would be more sensible yet? In the sharpened districts where we lived we lived our little lives, skating on the flat tops of torn tree trunks divided from root. What little ledges. What arrogance was required for each inbreath. We were offended by the vaguer terms: something, anywhere, every. Nothing. By the vaguer scenes seen through windows. Lives our lives would never touch. Everything asked. Nothing given. The grand trees stood guard over a tan and green blank. To each, the trees meant differently. To one they were oranges. To another they were branches divided into a family frenzy. A sotted father swaying in the height over a too-small trunk. Children laughing up into it with their cruel manners and mud-smeared faces. To the last, they were color gone bad in the late November plentiful sorrow. Tomorrow they would be nothing. Lean against haven for the breathless and senseless. Houses for the harried. Squirrels. A dog barking at the bottom of one. Once she saw some uprooted. Like herself laid down into restlessness. They were breaking her heart she said. Leafing flattened into feeling. She felt them falling she said. And turned. Later we would say it was a golden age, a dazzling epoch, and if the trees were slight in their part it wasn’t our fault. Every truth like no other. No nothing was ever our fault. Jean Dubuffet, "Paysage cursif (Cursive Landscape)," Colored crayons and felt tip pen on paper, 1974 Mary Jo Bang is the author of three books of poems: The Downstream Extremity of the Isle of Swans, Louise in Love, and Apology for Want. She’s been the poetry editor at Boston Review since 1995. |
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The Rail invites you to a reading with Jason Flores-Williams and Brian Carreira, along with musical guest Steve Strunsky of the Lonesome Prairie Dogs. Thurs., Sept. 22, 8:30 p.m. Vox Pop--Flatbush, Brooklyn www.voxpop.net |
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OFF THE RAIL FALL 2005 at the Central Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library - Grand Army Plaza |
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The Independent Press Association-NY recently honored The Brooklyn Rail with the following awards: |