Lit Log 2: The Original

Tiles on the table

In front of me

CMSEIR and a blank.

Command.

Motherhood.

Sex.

Elation.

Illegal.

Real.

And future possibilities.

I command. I am a commander.

I know all the rules.

A commander is me.

I think not.

The world drifts from my grip like the sands of time

Why grip harder?

Mothers are to be cherished.

We value struggle.

Whose struggle?

Sex is our tool.

Use it for good.

For whose good?

I can’t be so generous for long.

Elation requires its equal.

Nothing is comparable to the call of the world beyond

Who receives?

Care was for the poor.

This doesn’t pay.

I mustn’t contemplate it

Who pays its cost?

Why are we still here?

Not for love or hate

This world can’t accept either.

I just put the tiles down.

What is a tile?

To hold on.

Their struggle, our gain.

I wish I knew. Who does?

Not I. She.

Wooden. Solid. Easily lost. Easily forgotten.

Rarely found.

Now there are crimes on this table.

Only the future remains.

Artist’s Statement:

This poem contains many references to the themes of The Handmaid’s Tale. A few things to point out if the reader hasn’t yet noticed them: Readers will note that each of the middle stanzas is an exploration of one of the commander’s thoughts as he plays his opening move of scrabble against Offred. The last stanza refers to scrabble only in part. Don’t read too much into it. You might find something if you do.

ARTIST’S STATEMENT STATEMENT:

There was nothing to find. Unless, of course, you wanted there to be.

ARTIST’S STATEMENT STATEMENT STATEMENT:

The thing with art is that people see what they need to see. “‘I’m significant’, screamed the dust speck.” “Questions I know the answer to, I don’t need to ask, right?” -Jesus, Pat Buchanan, Kublai Khan, and/or King Joseph I of Spain.

ARTIST’S STATEMENT STATEMENT STATEMENT STATEMENT:

You don’t need this one. Nor the next. You already understand this poem as much as you’re going to, and you’re unhappy about it.

ARTIST’S STATEMENT STATEMENT STATEMENT STATEMENT STATEMENT:

Why are you like this?

REAL ARTIST’S STATEMENT BECAUSE THE OTHER ONES WEREN’T ACTUALLY ARTIST STATEMENTS THEY WERE JUST EXTENSIONS OF THE POEM, IN A SENSE: ALSO IF YOU’VE SEEN THREE IDENTICAL CATS LINGERING BY YOUR DOORWAY PLEASE CONTACT THEM AND TELL THEM YOU DON’T CONSENT TO BEING WATCHED.

Yeah, sorry about that. Those were not four random historical figures all the way back in “ARTIST’S STATEMENT STATEMENT STATEMENT”. They each have something to do with creation, sex, reproduction, and birth, in that order. PS. This website completely messed up the formatting