20090501

Small Talk

How am I, I look up
walk with your eyes
the mirror unfolds
some clandestine
disappointment, you
nudge me and grin
I tell you I’m fine

How am I, tiny
too small to see
under the gaze of
your flat screen TV
the car just delivered
the one in your drive
I tell you I’m fine

How am I; I’m actually
I’m; in point of fact
really I'm. You tell me
you feel that way too,
Worse, but you battled
through; a saint crucified
I tell you I’m fine

How am I; invisible
a torn grey sweater
a snapped washing line
You say more wine? Behind us
somebody slips in your smile
a basket of kryptonite
renders you blind.
I tell you I’m fine

How am I; You tell me
I insist you tell me
about your sixth-sense
we all of us struggle
about global-warming
you tell me, your own agony
this year Spain or perhaps
Italy. You touch me
you say 'you'll be fine'

10 Comments:

Blogger Russell CJ Duffy said...

Before leaving a half arsed comment as per usual, I will have to read and reflect on this awhile as it seems nothing like the words you have previously posted here. Maybe I am seeing more into than I should but I think it deserves more than one of my off the cuff comments.
All good though.

5:08 PM  
Blogger Nicole Braganza said...

The image I get when I read this poem is of a mother looking at her daughter, unwilling to see that she is broken. In fact, perhaps scared that her daughter will actually confess to what she is feeling.

And so, almost customarily, she asks her how she is, only to answer the question for her, herself.

But then, it could also be a conversation between two friends. However, the line 'the mirror unfolds some clandestine
disappointment' got me thinking. Is it the duaghter being referred to...the 'mirror image' of the mother, of her youth?

Enough of me rambling. Small Talk is a very suitable title for the poem, I think.

11:34 AM  
Blogger Artsy said...

Apt title "Small Talk" for how often we use that overused phrase "I am fine", when we truly are not or want to say we are feeling FANTASTIC, jumping up in glee, but the recepient may not understand or the one being asked may feel "too small" to truly say. Circumstances, choices...and yes, "invisible"....and more small talk you mention that scratches only the surface of the emotions while avoiding the real talk.

I like this poem a lot. Terrific subtle imagery, a backdrop to many paintings I can see in my mind and oh, I have lived this poem.

(Visit my site and see your email to see who this was/is). :)

8:09 AM  
Blogger gulnaz said...

small talk keeps the world spinning.... :) cj is right this deserves a re-read and not just off the cuff comments! :)

5:40 PM  
Blogger Russell CJ Duffy said...

Now it seems as if I have managed to grasp all the content but then again a poet often likes to leave 'gaps' for the audience to fill.
Is this poem not reflective of so many relationships? The way the trundle along in a rut of complacency with one partner, self absorbed, self centred maybe, neglecting to see how the other feels?
Really good this. Hope it sees print.

3:57 PM  
Blogger iamnasra said...

I come back and i LOVE YOUR POETRY MORE

7:50 AM  
Blogger iamnasra said...

I come back and i LOVE YOUR POETRY MORE

7:51 AM  
Blogger Sue hardy-Dawson said...

Thank you everyone, I tried Artsylynne but it wouldn't let me...

8:03 PM  
Blogger Russell Ragsdale said...

This is a really touching poem, Sue which makes me want to avoid this part of small talk for a while. Until I read this I really hadn't tried to name these groups we all know so well. This group has an edge to it that cuts rather than confirms, avoids or chafes. A painful theme indeed that you offer us so gently that it seeps like a liquid into us. Very well done!

11:41 AM  
Blogger Sue hardy-Dawson said...

Thanks Russel this was a very dark mood poem

7:18 PM  

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