Alvin
Pangs Choice
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A classic example of "show, don't tell" at work, the poem offers up
images of disarray and mental dissolution; both explicit ("rotten
bananas", "bold cockroaches".) and subtle "a gift you returned
unwrapped". Not once does the poem attempt to spell out the woman's
identity or state of mind -- instead, it lets observed facts do the
talking, to great effect.
Particularly striking are the persona's stark, bald statements
("The soup tastes terrible"; "you force a smile"; "rice, sugar,
salt, and lies".), juxtaposed against the surface tenderness of an
elderly crone attempting to offer the usual domestic comforts --
home cooking.
The reader may at first be intrigued or appalled by the subject's
behaviour towards the old woman -- apparently his mother or other
close relative. But the poem clinches this on a note of devastating
irony: the determined, if hapless apparent relative, is in fact a
social worker who "once a month" "volunteers / to be her forgotten
son", who has no blood ties or obligations to suffer the woman's
senility. His humouring of the old woman - far from being an
affectation - is in fact a way to answer her deeper emotional
needs.
Why this works, is that it enhances our sense of loss -- no only
has she lost her sound mind and ability to look after herself in
her old age, but her only sense of connection and family is through
the role-playing of a social volunteer, and only "once a month" at
that.
Her loss violates our sense of "home" and identity; this is
multiplied by the gap between what she imagines is happening, and
what the poem's subject tells us is actually the case. Indeed, the
early reference to the kitchen as a "stage" reinforces the sense of
the poem and its situation as an act of theatre.
Yet this is not theatre as deception, but theatre as a denial of
loss; and therefore an imperfect yet humane act of charity.
This is a fine poem - quietly moving, well observed, grounded in a
plausible emotional reality, and employing only simple, almost
conversational language rather than self-consciously "poetic"
technique.
One way to approach editing this poem would be to part it down even
further, avoid the temptation to indulge in lurid visuals (eg flies
and cockroaches are obvious enough, why do they have to be
"frenzied" and "bold" as well?) The need to give the cockroaches a
voice ("At least they know they are not alone".)is perhaps going a
little further than necessary as well.
