Tired Mitt Ann New day: I stir my bowl of cereal -- cornflakes that will never be crunchy again. I boil, for days over, the same bag of soiled tea leaves. Tired, like a lazy man, sitting on the couch -- punctual depressions. Leaves and dead lizards pause at my doorstep. Why aren’t I, working man, going back
1. Lines 7 -8: “Punctual depressions” is a phrase inspired by another -- “punctual monsoons”, found in https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/randall-mann 2. Line 9 “Pause at my doorstep” is a phrase inspired, but not authorly invoking Edith Wharton’s ‘Pomegranate Seed’, which opens, “Charlotte Ashby paused on her doorstep.” 3. Lines 10 – 11: “Why aren’t I, working man, /going back?” references the line “ ” in Songs of Chu ( ), as per Qiu (2006) translation, “The grass in spring have become so lush, why aren’t the wandering aristocrats coming back?” Citation: Qiu, X. (Trans.). (2006). 100 Poems from Tang and Song Dynasties. Better Link Press.
生兮萋萋
OTR
王孙游兮不归，春草
楚辞
76
2021-22