The Bean Eaters
They eat beans mostly, this old yellow pair.
Dinner is a casual affair.
Plain chipware on a plain and creaking wood,
Tin flatware.
Two who are Mostly Good.
Two who have lived their day,
But keep on putting on their clothes
And putting things away.
And remembering ...
Remembering with twinklings and twinges,
As they lean over the beans in their rented back room that
is full of beads and receipts and dolls and cloths,
tobacco crumbs, vases and fringes.
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4 comments:
One of my favorite Brooks poems! Thx!
You're welcome, Sandy. I keep re-reading to figure out how she does it - evoke a cozy yet oppressive mood. It reminds me of a poem in this month's APR by Jericho Brown, "N'em."
As they say, "God is in the details," right?
I'll look up JB's poem. Thanks for the recommendation. (I let go my APR subscription in favor a few smaller journals this past year.)
Dear Sandy,
Yeah, God's in the details, for sure. It's always good to be reminded.
I must take a minute away from my detail research (!) to put in a plug for APR. I abandoned it in utter frustration in the 90s (what WAS that stuff they were publishing?) but it has totally changed in the last few years. I noticed it first when they started pubbing Perillo, but it just kept getting better from there. Now I read it from cover to cover every month. They're prose pieces are quite amazing, too. Am just finishing up a hilarious article that compares Tony Hoagland to the Boss in The Office. How often does literary crit make you laugh?
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