Poem like a poetic thing (x-posted to greatpoets)

[kitchen_kink]

I'm preparing an intro to lit syllabus for college freshmen, and I'm wondering whether to include this. After all, it's in the reader. Question is, will they get it? Will they be insulted? And do I care? :)


JOHN & MARY
by Stephen Dunn

John and Mary had never met. They were like two
hummingbirds who also had never met.
-from a freshman's short story

They were like gazelles who occupied different
grassy plains, running in opposite directions
from different lions. They were like postal clerks
in different zip codes, with different vacation time,
their bosses adamant and clock-driven.
How could they get together?
They were like two people who couldn't get together.
John was a Sufi with a love of the dervish,
Mary of course a Christian with a curfew.
They were like two dolphins in the immensity
of the Atlantic, one playful,
the other stuck in a tuna net --
two absolutely different childhoods!
There was simply no hope for them.
They would never speak in person.
When they ran across that windswept field
toward each other, they were like two freight trains,
one having left Seattle at 6:36 p.m.
at an unknown speed, the other delayed
in Topeka for repairs.
The math indicated that they'd embrace
in another world, if at all, like parallel lines.
Or merely appear kindred and close, like stars.

Comments

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

Stephen Dunn!

!!!

This is great. I'd never read it before, and -- yes, I really like it. In fact, as I was baking, dilletante came into the kitchen and read it to me and I grinned.

They might be insulted, but they might also love it.

[ling-tso.livejournal.com]

If they're insulted, they've got awfully thin skins. Great poem, by the way.

[nex0s.livejournal.com]

include it. it's marvelous.

n.

[unknownrockstar.livejournal.com]

they were like two comic book characters who'd make a great couple, but one published by DC, and the other by Marvel, never destined for a rare intercompany crossover.