Grex Poetry Conference

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Grex Poetry Item 196: Small Talk in Intimate Settings, by Cloud
Entered by cloud on Fri Jun 2 08:54:05 UTC 2000:

"Small Talk in Intimate Settings"

        Sitting in a small booth, 
        looking at menus.
        I'm sneaking glances at you-
        You cock your head,

Talk about politics.

        You talk about the whales,
        but I'm 10,000 leagues away,
        fathoming the menu, and eyeing the shrimp.

Talk about Hollywood.

        New movies, old movies,
        New movies made from old movies,
        and Tom Cruise,

        But I'm looking at a different picture,
        the girl in the next booth, the waiter

Talk about food.

        My mouth is open
        and nothing is coming out;
        I want biscuits and gravy.

        Now it's drinks, as you take a sip,
        watch you're lips, as you

Talk about clothes,

Watch you talk.
                Talk.

6 responses total.

#1 of 6 by cloud on Fri Jun 2 08:56:19 2000:

I haven't posted in ages, and in fact this is the first thing I've writtain
in ages, so please let me know what you think.

It's been so long since I last logged on to Grex (to my regret), that my
account was snuffed, and I had to remake it!

#2 of 6 by orinoco on Fri Jun 2 14:39:44 2000:

        You talk about the whales,
        but I'm 10,000 leagues away,
        fathoming the menu, and eyeing the shrimp.

--nice.  You might wanna try to make the connection between what you're doing
and the topic of conversation that clear in all of them -- I think I can find
connections for the other stanzas, but they're not all so obvious, and so it
was a little confusing the first time I read it.  

This is cool, though.  Something about the tone, I'm not sure what it is, but
it's really nice.

(P.S. "your" not "you're")

#3 of 6 by arianna on Fri Jun 2 20:00:42 2000:

this is neat, I like it.  so matter of fact in tone but with something
underlying.

#4 of 6 by lumen on Mon Jun 5 22:20:27 2000:

resp:2  No.  I totally disagree, Dan-- I got it, but perhaps it's 
because it reminds me so much of my divergent and eclectic mind.  
Really.  I got a sense that the author is paying minimal attention to 
the conversation at hand-- a one-sided conversation, at that, so he 
tells us of what small points he remembers while describing his mental 
drift in much more detail.

It's truly amazing.. I don't think anyone has ever captured a moment of 
the wandering mind so pithily, articulately, and eloquently.

also makes me feel better about myself, in a strange way.. not everyone 
understands my mental flux, and I don't meet many who think in a 
similar fashion.  It's nice to see something that seems to point to an 
understanding

#5 of 6 by freedom on Sun Jul 2 23:17:18 2000:

Hmm..so if guys are doing all this extra thinking while we girls are talking,
WHY DON"T YOU TELL US WE ARE BORING YOU!!! :)  :) And staring at the girl in
the next booth, hmph!!
hehe...anyhow...I like this poem to, it just flows in a "cool" way, the only
word I can think to use in this case..

#6 of 6 by jazz on Wed Jul 5 16:06:00 2000:

        
        This is a total tangent, but I had a good laugh when, as we were
stranded near an accident scene late last night, I caught my girlfriend
watching one particularly well-built firefighter, and called her out - "OK,
put your eyes back in your head now!".  We both had a good laugh out of it.
I figure that people are going to be attracted to other people, regardless
of whether they're involved or not - it's a biological urge - and as long as
they don't carry it too far, then everything's good.

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