For the sake of cackling
Submitted by JCK on April 28, 2009 – 11:19 am6 Comments
For the sake of cackling
by matt ronquillo
Getting old is like one of those sinister jokes I had in my dreams as a kid
Like when my brother got eaten by a giant spider
Laughing his ass off in the blood and the rain
We all go down swinging
And you can carry a twig or a bat
Depending on where in the woods you were walking
Would my newfound knowledge have kept you from leaving had I known it back then?
Fuck you anyway
It’s good to know I wasn’t crazy
Now that it doesn’t matter
It’s good to know it doesn’t matter
Now that I’ve decided I’m not crazy
Funny are the factors uncontrollable, to me
The least you can do is watch me while I’m crumbling
For the sake of cackling
©
thanks halifax. I guess the reason why the end of this poem works for me is that it relates back to the first line, and uses a synonym like “cackling” to convey some metonymic baggage relating to age. So, when reading this, I wonder about the speaker of the poem and his addressee – about what the poem is trying to accomplish in these methods of expression – and I wonder how it’s fleshing out these two mostly unexplored characters. As such, “cackling” gives clues within the poem’s structure, opening up dimensions that go a little ways beyond the surface of the language, i.e. cackling is a very specific type of laughter. The poem itself conveys more than what the words explicitly state. There’s a fair amount going on here, in the poem’s structure, and I like that.
Happy 49 fogman.
frankly, this was posted on my 49th birthday. and it made me cackle. because I’m crumbling. but I like the way the writer put these words together. I see lots of poems use similar language and they just feel contrived. for whatever reason, this one strikes me. I wish I knew why.
I’d offer “and offer me laughter” as an alternative turn of phrase. Otherwise, this is a moving piece.
no idea who jck is. i thought there were some good lines in this. not crazy about the ending.
this is really good. who’s jck?