13 Comments
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Sherman Alexie's avatar

Thank you! Getting compared to Plath and Frost makes my day!

Kathryn Benander's avatar

I love this! I hear Sylvia Plath here and maybe a bit of "good fences make good neighbors." I love the way it ends with a mirror to show us our own hypocrisy. Very funny and a little terrifying too!

Sherman Alexie's avatar

Thank you! Getting compared to Plath and Frost makes my day!

Steve Lovelace's avatar

Is it possible for humans to not take sides. I suppose there has been a few over the centuries. But it is very difficult. I believe everyone does not want to look behind the curtain. I usually make an attempt. Thank You again.

Sherman Alexie's avatar

Thank you, Steve. Fitzgerald said the sign of a superior intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas at the same time. I fail often.

Dee's avatar

I truly enjoyed the broken villanelle structure. I love the universality of our “broken”. Points of view. So captures this strange era of division!

Sherman Alexie's avatar

Thank you so much. I had not thought of the brokeness of my villanelle connecting with the brokenness of ‘us.’

tridukes's avatar

Thanks for this. Any effort to heal through art is valuable and commendable!

feral cat society's avatar

Beautiful and painfully true.

Marcia Lovelace's avatar

Damn, I wish I could think this poem was about "those other people". I am so enraged and afraid about what's happening in this country that it's hard to to keep an open heart or mind. Thanks for the reminder to keep trying.

Elena Solow's avatar

Sorry the book was about Mina Loy by Mary ann Caws🤷🏻‍♀️🥱

Elena Solow's avatar

It was okay. Always like your voice. My tv in the background. Turned off my iodine that was a book reading about Mina Caws. The bird is nice.😷💘

Wayne Kigerl's avatar

Methinks I perceive a wee bit O'Burlesque if not O'Blarney.