Issue 22 - 1992
Issue 22 - 1992
Issue 22 - 1992
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Coe Review • <strong>Issue</strong> <strong>22</strong><br />
and underground shelter and grandma’s black mouth. Aaaah. Aaaah.<br />
It is cold, the grandma wants to say. It is hot. It is cold and hot, big<br />
and small, boy and girl, happy and sad. Aaaah. Aaaah. Everything,<br />
the grandma says. Everything, everywhere.<br />
The grandma doesn’t like the steel pipe, the buried shelter,<br />
the heavy moonlight down there just waiting for her. You try to help<br />
her into the steel pipe. Down there, the other grandma reaches too.<br />
Down there the other grandma pulls. But this grandma says Aaaah.<br />
Scared but she wants to know. Always the deep earth, always the<br />
black night. The grandma is like the orange cat, which clawed and<br />
ran away. Grandma grandma. You try to make the soothing sounds<br />
mom makes for breakfast. There there Alice. Be a good girl. You like<br />
your cereal don’t you alice. Aaaah. Aaaah. Into the steel pipe, but<br />
both of grandma’s arms don’t fit. Pull her down, the other grandma<br />
says. Pull her down to me. And grandma’s big black mouth wide,<br />
wide with all the words she’ll find down there. Everything words.<br />
Aaaah. Aaaah. And the moon all around, and the words down there<br />
waiting with the other grandma. Louder and louder the grandma<br />
gets. Louder and louder like the moon. Aaaah. And now you try to<br />
help her. Help her head into the big steel pipe, but her head doesn’t<br />
fit. Louder and louder, deeper and deeper, worlds and words. And<br />
lights going on in all the backyards, and lights going on in your<br />
house, too. Light, light. And the grandma crying for the other<br />
grandma, for all the words she can’t quite reach when the men come<br />
with big steel tools and cut the pipe away, and then pull grandma<br />
from it.<br />
Down there. Down there. Toads hop, snakes slither, spiders<br />
scramble and crawl. Moonlight talks and dark earth listens. Pih, pih.<br />
Paper, pin, pickle, paste, plate, pastry, pigeon, plant. Person. Person.<br />
And now the r words. Rih. Rih. Everything down there in the dark<br />
and the water. And grandma embracing everything too. Vast sunken<br />
cities, countries, landscapes and stars. Hissing rivers and steaming<br />
forests. Worlds down there, worlds and words. Rih, rih. Rock, robin,<br />
rouge, rasp, rattle. Dad’s graduation ring. The marcie’s transistor<br />
radio. And grandma, grandma coming closer. The grandma’s arms<br />
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