Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, FAIR/BOY CHRISTIAN TAKES A BREAK, by JAMES HARRISON


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

FAIR/BOY CHRISTIAN TAKES A BREAK, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: This other speaks of bones, blood-wet
Last Line: The removal of what my troubled eyes have seen.
Alternate Author Name(s): Harrison, Jim
Subject(s): Carnivals; Children; Memory; Sin; Childhood


This other speaks of bones, blood-wet
and limber, the rock in bodies. He takes
me to the slaughterhouse, where lying
sprawled, as a giant coil of rope,
the bowels of cattle. At the county fair
we pay an extra quarter to see the hermaphrodite.
We watch the secret air tube
blow up the skirts of the farm girls,
tanned to the knees then strangely white.
We eat spareribs and pickled eggs,
the horses tear the ground to pull a load
of stone; in a burning tent we see
Fantasia do her Love Dance with the
Spaniard - they glisten with sweat, their
limbs knot together while below them farm
boys twitter like birds. Then the breasts
of a huge Negress rotate to a march in
opposing directions, and everyone stamps
and cheers, the udders shine in blurring
speed. Out of the tent we pass produce
stalls, some hung with ribbons, squash
and potatoes stacked in pyramids. A bucktoothed
girl cuts her honorable-mention
cake; when she leans to get me water
from a milk pail her breasts are chaste.
Through the evening I sit in the car (the
other is gone) while my father watches
the harness race, the 4-H talent show.
I think of St. Paul's Epistles and pray
the removal of what my troubled eyes have seen.





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