He's the farmer, chasing me.
I'm the horse, running away,
front porch to back, around
our symmetrical bungalow.
I pantomime a disguise— glasses,
floppy hat. Yeah, I saw the horse.
He went that way.
The farmer's gullible, I can trick him
twice in a row. The third time
he catches me.
I'm a man with a new TV.
He's a thief, snatches the set
from my living room.
I chase him, back porch to front.
Twice my eyes deceive me:
Guy with a TV? he says.
Over there —he points,
and I tear around the corner
of the house. But the third time
I catch him.
7 comments:
Nice! Very nice parallels. The second stanza surprised me - I love surprises!
Is it children playing? Or am I supposed to get something different?
I like the parallel stanzas but, like Karen, don't know quite what the import of these two races is...
Yes, it is children playing. In fact it's meant to be the same two children-- I wonder if that's clear?
I guess it wasn't to the others, Joanne, but to me it was very clear (?)..
When I first read this, was also confused, and I think it's just a matter of slightly tweaking voice/register, to make it clearer to the reader, or at least to me!
(Even really brainiac children wouldn't probably use words like symmetrical bungalow or pantomime a disguise or farmer's gullible or twice my eyes deceive me, while describing a high-energy chase game. So I pictured adults, and I was like crikey, this is quite the foreplay/role-play...or is this a paranoid schizophrenic, or a clever metaphor I don't get? P'raps all 3...)
That mild confusion aside, I like the energy of this poem and the little vignettes of childhood games/imagination! Awesome MD material...
well I got that it was two people playing, but I thought it to be two adults just being like a pair of kids! having plain, old, simple fun.
and yes, the two different voices might be made more definite.
fun!
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