Hands
by Jean Sprackland
She peels cod fillets off the slab,
dips them in batter, drops them
one by one into the storm of hot fat.
I watch her scrubbed hands,
elegant at the work,
and think of the hands of the midwife
stroking wet hair from my face as I sobbed and cursed,
calling me sweetheart and wheeling in more gas,
hauling out at last my slippery fish of a son.
He was all silence and milky blue. She took him away
and brought him back breathing,
wrapped in a white sheet. By then
I loved her like my own mother.
I stand here speechless in the steam and banter,
as she makes hospital corners of my hot paper parcel.
dips them in batter, drops them
one by one into the storm of hot fat.
I watch her scrubbed hands,
elegant at the work,
and think of the hands of the midwife
stroking wet hair from my face as I sobbed and cursed,
calling me sweetheart and wheeling in more gas,
hauling out at last my slippery fish of a son.
He was all silence and milky blue. She took him away
and brought him back breathing,
wrapped in a white sheet. By then
I loved her like my own mother.
I stand here speechless in the steam and banter,
as she makes hospital corners of my hot paper parcel.
Link to poem: http://www.newyorker.com/fiction/poetry/2007/07/09/070709po_poem_sprackland#ixzz117D7Hha6
I would like to guess the starting place of this poem is in the kitchen because she is dipping fish into batter and frying it.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I do not really get a gender in this poem. Only thing that would make me assume the speaker is a female would be she is talking about herself cooking the fish in the kitchen???? Just a guess
ReplyDeleteGood comments, Amanda. Don't forget, we're putting our comments on the other post (the ones with the instructions). But since we're both here...
ReplyDeleteThink about who is speaking. Is it the speaker who is making the fish? It says SHE peels the cod fillets and I watch HER hands. The speaker would not talk about herself in this way, right? So we've got a speaker watching someone else cook fish. There are no clues about the speaker's gender in this part of the poem. But take a look at stanza two. Here we have the speaker describing the birth of her son, so she's clearly female.
See my latest question on the comments section of the other post: what is the CONNECTION between the fish cooking and the childbirth?