NIGHT CRAWLER
I roam this world on sidewalks littered
with images of violence.
Maintenance crews work overtime,
even on Sundays and Christmas —
stout men, crawling on padded knees,
scrub concrete with caustic detergent,
broad steel-bristled brushes, and
elbow grease. The stains remain.
My satin slippers darken and fray.
Each dawn finds holes worn through
at least a dozen pairs — and I am
merely one frail princess, attired for
skipping down streets of polished gold.
– by Ann Applegarth
Ann Applegarth was awarded an Academy of American Poets prize at the University of New Mexico in 1980, and her work has appeared in publications such as Sin Fronteras, St. Anthony Messenger, West Wind Review, Bellowing Ark, Christianity & Literature, and Denali, and the anthologies Shadow and Light: Literature and the Life of Faith, Earthships: A New Mecca Poetry Collection, and Along the Rio Grande. She lives, writes, and administers an annual all-schools poetry contest in Roswell, New Mexico. To view some more of Ann’s poetry on-line, visit the following sites: ; ;
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Copyright ©2009, by Ann Applegarth. All Rights Reserved.
I love the line breaks and the economy of the relations, which are presented as strange but true, and indeed truthful but not so convincingly so as not to let the wonder and the questions linger. Where is the beauty (of this life) and how is it beautiful? Is there pain — and loss and knowledge and experience? Or are these deflected away?
Beauty in the midst of painful sights. The rough, the raw, and the fragile, and the soft. Strong contrasts making heightened sense of the environment, motion. Yes, but, as you say, questions linger.
Very true, and the uncanny way in which a very good poem can create questions that somehow linger is an index of its value, that it rewards and then continues to reward attentive reading. My take on poetry, in any event, and especially on this poem with its interesting “satin slippers” and “frail princess.“