Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Pop - By _________ ___________________

See if you can name the author of this work. I'll give you 10 guesses. I googled the poet that read at today's inauguration and I ended up at this work of another poet. Guess who.

Please don't give it away if you already know because you've seen the poem before.


Pop

Sitting in his seat, a seat broad and broken
In, sprinkled with ashes,
Pop switches channels, takes another
Shot of Seagrams, neat, and asks
What to do with me, a green young man
Who fails to consider the
Flim and flam of the world, since
Things have been easy for me;
I stare hard at his face, a stare
That deflects off his brow;
I'm sure he's unaware of his
Dark, watery eyes, that
Glance in different directions,
And his slow, unwelcome twitches,
Fail to pass.
I listen, nod,
Listen, open, till I cling to his pale,
Beige T-shirt, yelling,
Yelling in his ears, that hang
With heavy lobes, but he's still telling
His joke, so I ask why
He's so unhappy, to which he replies . . .
But I don't care anymore, cause
He took too damn long, and from
Under my seat, I pull out the
Mirror I've been saving; I'm laughing,
Laughing loud, the blood rushing from his face
To mine, as he grows small,
A spot in my brain, something
That may be squeezed out, like a
Watermelon seed between
Two fingers.
Pop takes another shot, neat,
Points out the same amber
Stain on his shorts that I've got on mine and
Makes me smell his smell, coming
From me; he switches channels, recites an old poem
He wrote before his mother died,
Stands, shouts, and asks
For a hug, as I shink, my
Arms barely reaching around
His thick, oily neck, and his broad back; 'cause
I see my face, framed within
Pop's black-framed glasses
And know he's laughing too.

9 Comments:

Blogger kishke said...

I don't know, but it's creeping me out.

January 20, 2009 at 7:25 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

LOL. Yes, there is a creepy quality. I don't know the poem either.

January 21, 2009 at 10:20 PM  
Blogger rabbi neil fleischmann said...

I will, please G-d provide the answer in my next new post. If you're curious you can google. You're in for a surprise.

January 21, 2009 at 11:22 PM  
Blogger kishke said...

Well, I googled. I am surprised. And impressed.

January 22, 2009 at 11:24 PM  
Blogger rabbi neil fleischmann said...

Cool, right. You didn't have to google, I revealed the answer in the post called (/),here:

http://rabbifleischmann.blogspot.com/2009/01/blog-post.html

January 23, 2009 at 12:19 AM  
Blogger kishke said...

But that would perhaps explain the creepiness. It's a boy who grew up without a father writing about his father. There's a lot of bitterness there.

January 23, 2009 at 10:17 AM  
Blogger rabbi neil fleischmann said...

Yes.

January 23, 2009 at 10:27 AM  
Blogger esqcapades said...

Actually, the poem is about his grandfather. When I first read it I thought the author had very ambiguous feelings about his relationship with "Pop" despite the ending, especially because of this part "...as he grows small, A spot in my brain, something That may be squeezed out, like a Watermelon seed between Two fingers." After I googled and discovered the author, I read somewhere that his memoir describes a "challenging relationship between Barack and his grandfather." The poem certainly is consistent with that view.

January 25, 2009 at 12:58 AM  
Blogger rabbi neil fleischmann said...

You are right. Sorry about the error. Thanks for the comment.

Great to have you here and to hear from you.

January 25, 2009 at 1:09 AM  

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