emiliomuniz

What can I say about Edson, he's one of my favorite prose poets (or of flash fiction, if you prefer--the lines move back and forth on any given day). Published in 1976, he continues till this day to use the same formula of very short, surreal poems that almost read like fairy tales. And you know what? It works. Still. It doesn't go stale. About 75% of the poems in this book involve animals (also very prominent in his other books), with an exceptional liking to frogs, toads, oxen, cows, and apes. When not incorporating animals, I'm always amazed at how he meshes the ideas of birth, the elderly, and sex in his works--sometimes in the same poem! His stuff is funny, sad, obnoxious (one deals with how to court a heavy woman), and disgusting (see the below poem!). A few of the pieces in this collection are a bit longer (1 - 1 1/2 pgs) than his more recent works, and tend more to be what I consider flash fiction and/or short-shorts. Either way, his writing and insane creativity can only be understood through reading his poetry. And with that, I leave you with one of the poems in the book: "APE." Enjoy! APE You haven't finished your ape, said mother to father, who had monkey hair and blood on his whiskers. I've had enough monkey, cried father. You didn't eat the hands, and I went to all the trouble to make onion rings for its fingers, said mother. I'll just nibble on its forehead, and then I've had enough, said father. I stuffed its nose with garlic, just like you like it, said mother. Why don't you have the butcher cut these apes up? You lay the whole thing on the table every night; the same fractured skull, the same singed fur; like someone who died horribly. These aren't dinners, these are post-mortem dissections. Try a piece of its gum, I've stuffed its mouth with bread, said mother. Ugh, it looks like a mouth full of vomit. How can I bite into its cheek with bread spilling out of its mouth? cried father. Break one of the ears off, they're so crispy, said mother. I wish to hell you'd put underpants on these apes; even a jockstrap, screamed father. Father, how dare you insinuate that I see the ape as anything more thn simple meat, screamed mother. Well what's with this ribbon tied in a bow on its privates? screamed father. Are you saying that I am in love with this vicious creature? That I would submit my female opening to this brute? That after we had love on the kitchen floor I would put him in the oven, after breaking his head with a frying pan; and then serve him to my husband, that my husband might eat the evidence of my infidelity . . . ? I'm just saying that I'm damn sick of ape every night, cried father.

2020-08-23 22:47