Take You Me for a Sponge, My Lord?
by Bill Yarrow
says Rosencrantz to the Prince. Idiot!
Mistaking Hamlet's figurative language
for literal. Who does that besides Kafka,
Arreola, and Steven Wright?
Take you him for a rake, my lord?
Yes, he's a rake, surely, scooping up
the sweet leaves of womanhood
and setting them all on fire.
Take you him for a snake, my lord?
Yes, he's a snake, surely, slithering
across the public eye, poisoning
with malice the rabble-hearted many.
Take you him for a weasel, my lord?
Yes, he's a weasel, surely, sneaking
into city burrows and suburban nests,
lying while smiling, for recompense.
Take you him for a pigeon, my lord?
Yes, he's a pigeon, surely, cooing
sweetly for favor, moaning for promotion,
singing open the secret pains we cherish.
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Author's Note
This poem was published in Mojave River Review and appears in "Critique of Pure Dreaming" (free download at academia.edu ).
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I like it.
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The direct evocation of "Take you him for..." is wonderful in this piece, Bill. Pulls me into the poem and keeps me there.
Love the wit at work in action created by the word choices and the transformation at work : scooping, setting (a fire), slithering, poisoning, sneaking, smiling, cooing, singing.
Your closing "singing open the secret pains we cherish" is an accurate a description of human nature as can be written. That is our nature. We grow in it, thrive on it, perpetuate it. Like the wound in the arm we can't help but poke to see if it still hurts.
Good piece - and a good shadow for the body of poems in the collection.
It resonates strangely and takes me back to my study days.
Wonderfully wrought from that oh so fertile source.
(Poor boy, in the end to be mouthed like an apple in an ape's jaw ...)
Thank you, Jerry, JLD, Sam, Erika, and David!
Love this. Fun. I imagine an actor improvising--an actor who wants more lines maybe, trying to upstage Hamlet, going on and on. It's hilarious. (It could be a good exercise to use with students, have them choose a scene/line and riff.)
I love "lying while smiling"
and all the rest of it, too. Things I say are all too often taken literally *
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Thanks, Dianne, Fos, and Jenny!
Well done.
Thanks, Gary!