Monday, March 7, 2011

The Strange

The Strange

As ivy slithers across brick,
so do we cling to the patterns
we establish with our lives.

Then, strangeness interjects.
An anomaly. It does not belong
to the days we have cultivated.

A dead traffic light swaying above
you, color emptied from its body.
From the back of a blue pick-up truck,

an airbrushed skeleton extending
a finger, orange and yellow flames
tumbling out as it points.

The strange. The bus, full of people,
parked on the side of the street,
no driver. A person greeting you

by the wrong name, the password
that will not grant you access,
not even on the fourth or fifth attempt.

The strange tugs on our sleeves,
stretches an ankle beneath our step
to make us stumble. That is odd,

we think, about these reminders of
how impossible routine is once
we decide to look at it.

Would you look at that, we think,
when interrupted by the strange.
Has that always been there.

7 comments

  1. If the question arises or nominally conjured in some unknown time and space then if not always then now, it is there, it is present.

    See there you go again, you made me think.

    Wonderful insight/incite.

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  2. As always, thought-provoking. Wonderful imagery, beginning with that first line of "As ivy slithers". You've conjured the little scenes we've all seen, the full bus waiting, the traffic light, etc. And that eternal question!

    I experienced one of my own "strange" in upstate New York a few years ago. We had dinner at a restaurant on the main street and then decided after to talk a walk around. We went down one street where we found lights on and heard doors open and close but saw not one person. It was like being on a movie set.

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  3. Slithers is an interesting word choice.

    I need more of a routine right now, more of a normal. My world has been turned upside down for the past two years and all the normals are gone.

    I long for new ones.

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  4. Subjectifying the strange. Well done. I just LOVE the way your mind works. LOVE it!xo

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  5. The dominatrix in that painting looks scary.

    I don't know why but the line about the ivy slithering across bricks gave me the shivers. Like spiders do.

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  6. One of my favourites of yours, Hannah. An acute reflection on the glitches that make it impossible for us fully to wrest order out of chaos.

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  7. "The strange" - yes, I've been there, and nodded in agreement throughout this.

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