D.S. Marriott Response

I like where I found myself in the beginning of this poem with the line ‘the thing sheds its skin in water’ it evokes this image of a mysterious creature. I think creature because of the ‘thing’ reference.

What I saw being detailed next was the poem’s direction towards talking about a relationship between a ‘her’ and this ‘thing’ that sheds its skin in the water

It seems like the point where the two met was a ‘poisonous’ place implying that the relationship between the two will be off to a wrong start. I’m looking at the line ‘the poison of revenge gone native in the grass’ I thought this was interesting because of its narrative value that springs into verse.

Yet, there are many lessons in being with a mysterious creature that sheds its skin in the water and it seems this poem lays them out for us. I am thinking of the line ‘lovers come and go/ but the true other is a muscle between forefinger and thumb/ Why avoid his lumbering return?’ I was thinking this line was a message of self-love, a recognition that lovers are on a spectrum of a revolving door so why not love your own self. 

And maybe the character is questioning that in their own selves, almost interrogating themselves, why don’t I love myself more fiercely instead?

I am also thinking of when the narrator throws themselves into the water. This was symbolic on many levels to me, I was thinking of the ways intimate relationships can feel like being in an ocean of the other person, and how it can feel like you’re drowning sometimes.

By the end of the first section, we get this shift. It seems now that the drowning has taken place and that there is recognition of a new self, that there has been a change. I am thinking of the line ‘this experience has made me unnatural/ Where he goes, he knows that I will follow’

I also saw a lot of language surrounding birth being used, I liked the poet’s use of the word ‘cuals’ for me it was visceral and yet very tied down to reality, in the ways in which the narrator is unsure of the raising of the newborn between them. 

I am thinking of the line ‘unsleeve the cauls as a fetus-gifts,/ their crippled being alien,/ a litter in the albumen of thought./ Whatever our deformity,/ here it is a lost child.’ Albumen also being a reference to an aspect to the birth of chickens as it is what is known as egg whites, or where all the protein comes from.

The ending also seems like a resignation in some ways ‘but I am his nightfall, his abandoned grief,/ and my scarred surface never heals’ I found the last few words haunting. I thought the way that D.S Marriot constructed and told this poem was like a thread-work of watery words!