SLUM SCENE
SLUM SCENE
by Bill Knott
poor children sharing
back and forth their one
set of Dracula’s teeth—
here even the dead
live hand to mouth
0 thoughts on “SLUM SCENE”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
SLUM SCENE
by Bill Knott
poor children sharing
back and forth their one
set of Dracula’s teeth—
here even the dead
live hand to mouth
You must be logged in to post a comment.
The poor are often ignorant, vain, and cursed. That’s just how it is. Not that they have a monopoly on those traits but their middle and upper class brethren seem to have their own set of vices.
This is the kind of poem that’s short, sweet, to the point where you expect the negative labels and description to lead somewhere positive and glowing but it just doesn’t. ‘Slum Scene’ as the title gives us the setting and we would assume ‘set of Dracula’s teeth’ would indicate the time being Halloween. Children sharing that staple of the season, Dracula’s teeth, might even bring back fond memories for the readers but when you think about passing on the slobber, spit, germs by way of mouth from an ornament made in tribute to a cold blooded monster then it really takes on a horrible disgusting guise.
The last lines: “here even the dead live hand to mouth” reads a harrowing judgement and epitaph for the poor–they are as unthinking as the dead. It’s a ballsy poem for saying something politically incorrect but apparently true in so many cases. thx for sharing!