"If the soul is just the story that it tells, then / Did his answer, his smile, / The way he took his comb out of his back pocket / And slicked his hair back, / Spite the soul with something like the soul?"
— Levis, Larry Patrick (1946-1996)
Work Title
Place of Publication
Pittsburgh
Publisher
University of Pittsburgh Press
Date
1985
Metaphor
"If the soul is just the story that it tells, then / Did his answer, his smile, / The way he took his comb out of his back pocket / And slicked his hair back, / Spite the soul with something like the soul?"
Metaphor in Context
[...]
"What's in the coffins," she asked him, "when, you know . . .
You open them up?"
He looked at her briefly, "Just hair," he answered,
"Just miles & miles of hair."
If the soul is just the story that it tells, then
Did his answer, his smile,
The way he took his comb out of his back pocket
And slicked his hair back,
Spite the soul with something like the soul?
And who really gives a shit?
Except those who, like children who hope the story
Never ends, & gather
To watch a fermented body pouring from a chalice,
Or the boy who wished
To stay awake forever, & who, with matches & a spoon,
After a while found a way
To do just that. They found him, face white & thin,
Almost, as a communion host,
Dead in a little swanboat in the park, one foot dangling
In the water of the pond. [...]
"What's in the coffins," she asked him, "when, you know . . .
You open them up?"
He looked at her briefly, "Just hair," he answered,
"Just miles & miles of hair."
If the soul is just the story that it tells, then
Did his answer, his smile,
The way he took his comb out of his back pocket
And slicked his hair back,
Spite the soul with something like the soul?
And who really gives a shit?
Except those who, like children who hope the story
Never ends, & gather
To watch a fermented body pouring from a chalice,
Or the boy who wished
To stay awake forever, & who, with matches & a spoon,
After a while found a way
To do just that. They found him, face white & thin,
Almost, as a communion host,
Dead in a little swanboat in the park, one foot dangling
In the water of the pond. [...]
Categories
Provenance
Reading
Citation
Larry Levis, "The Space," from Winter Stars (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1985).
Date of Entry
07/25/2016
