Riverflesh Response

I had to read Riverflesh a few times, then slowly line by line a couple times. In part one it reads like the speaker is the fetus/baby/child in this poem. The lines that stood out to me were “In the mewling mouth my innocent mess of grammar The materials a nightmare, not my fault.” The materials a nightmare almost sound like the beliefs, customs and thought of his parents are not his fault but he has been stuck with their genes and who they are as parents. Throughout the poem there are strong tones of violence, the pastoral, mystery, skin and the body. There is so much going on in Part I. But it seems a lot like the baby is describing their parents, the mother “A girl admires her half-exposed breasts Her spine wracked Her knees bleeding on the path of snow.” Then to be born “The wronged child not in words but in the desire.” From the child’s view it seems they were born out of desire rather than what society would deem a conventional birth from married parents. The baby even describes themself as “My face inhuman and my eyes a desert.”

Another line that stood out to be was “Lovers come and go But the true other is a muscle between forefinger and thumb.” I had to google the muscle between the forefinger and thumb, the results I got were the median nerve. It is also stated if the median nerve is damaged is may lead to servere carpal tunnel syndrome. It made me think, lovers come and go for the mother but her true other maybe the pain, the pain of having carpel tunnel syndrome?

In the second stanza, I was a bit confused when the speaker is talking about the brother. The two lines that stood out were, "Go mourn the brother’s broken mirror” and “For the monster devoured by his brother.” I wondered what is the brother’s broken mirror? And who is the monster? I don’t know at this moment but it has left me wondering and captivated.

 In part II, the line “Whatever our deformity, here it is a lost child.” I am wondering if the speaker is the lost child in the poem? Also I wonder what they are referring to as the creature in part II?

Part II seems more cohesive to me like in the line “flitting across the alder’s yellow eyebrow, or perhaps we are twins--tormentor, whose bright eyes are the shade of mine, mired in the same bad blood” it sounds like the speaker may be talking about their father. The speaker mentions the mother and violence she endured and has hints of the parents. But the speaker hints at a monster, creature, a “tormentor whose bright eyes are the same shade as mine.” The speaker then writes very powerful lines which read, “I can smell his skin and his inside-out organs. And the charred heart devoured from its pitch black cavern as he hunts me through the ice; the wreck of snow melting us to nothing as day breaks onto storm.” Wow! Those lines were like a punch to the face for whoever it was written for. The lines drip with a painful past and a “scarred surface never heals.” The last stanza says “At sunrise, I will loosen some more of his flesh,” as to say each day I am breaking away from being the person I am one half of (parent). The words “At sunrise” are very hopeful as to say despite the violence, pain, broken past and nightmare the speaker has endured the sun will still rise giving us new beginning i.e. new skin.