Small Talk (Eleanor Lerman)

Never heard of the poet or the poem, but that's fine, since I like this poem and I will want to explore more of the poems of this poet. Poems of the Day are like that. They (just occasionally) direct you to a gem.

This poem moves so carefully, so cautiously. If every day in the suburbs is mild than so is the poem, making no declarations, trying to stir no ripples. Even the title pushing down what the poem's getting across by calling it simply small talk. Nothing serious is said in small talk after all. Nothing important.

But then, you see, this poem is sneaky. Not all lives are dull in the suburbs and not all small talk is pointless. This poem also contains a sharp point after carefully describing how it does not. The last stanza shows that the babes of the suburban mothers to be asleep in the arms of the wind - wild in ways that suburban life cannot approach. If they are to be wild, however, it is due to the suburban mothers - the safety of their mild ways and of their mild suburbs. "Such small talk/before life begins"

Favorite line: "If there is/sunlight, it enters through the/kitchen window and spreads/itself, thin as a napkin, beside/the coffee cup"