Cradle Song
Our outer flank was exposed.
From the north, where titans grow and
fire crackles endlessly, screams heard repeatedly!
We’d been warned of a coming storm but
how little we knew of ominous tones…
The provisions devoured in hours! And a little boy
made to watch his mother burn alive.
Have you been to the outer rim where grass gathers?
he’d mutter into the cellar air.
Have you been to the outer rim where grass gathers?
That was the night I forced Matt to borrow a monster movie.
That was the night the snake beneath the bed quit trying.
That was the night her face finally faded and something new came in.
Have you been to the outer rim where grass gathers?
Have you felt the ground gather beneath you?
Repeatedly!
| Tim Greenup |
|
levelheaded: Cradle Song
The title “Cradle Song” cues us into the idea that this week’s poem may aim to reveal something inherent in the human condition, or perhaps more accurately, something that we are forced to adopt during infancy. The first line—“Our outer flank was exposed.”—tells us that the world we are born into is best described in terms typically designated for war. Thus, the poem suggests that we are born into a war zone, that we are born vulnerable.
While the next two lines build on the theme of violence introduced in the poem’s opening sentence, the dramatic tone highlighted by the use of an exclamation point suggests that Tim Greenup may mean all of this seriously and humorously. Similarly, lines four and five succeed in revealing another dark truth—that enduring rather than being warned about hardship leads us to believe in it—and yet, a line later, the playful rhyme of “devoured in hours!” adds levity to what would be a terrible situation.
Greenup forces us to see the horror in the world around us (“a little boy / made to watch his mother burn alive”). More importantly, he challenges us to distinguish genuine trauma from child’s play (“I forced Matt to borrow a monster movie”) by placing these lines in such close proximity to one another. And, most importantly, he leads us to examine the aspects of life that are not exclusively good or bad, like “the night her face finally faded and something new came in.”
The repeated question “Have you been to the outer rim where the grass gathers?” does not tell us whether this land is pleasant or putrid. Instead, it teaches us that the world is a place where life insistently sprouts up, filled with possibilities, both good and bad.
– The Editors
