a la Simone

poisoned by

my mother’s love

I am confined to look

in the mirror sideways

recognising barely

my lopsided

face

heard by

the one who hears

she and I live by silence

attending to gravity

and grace as

befits.

you need a strong stomach for this one – it may be ‘too deep for a monday’ (name of a regular gig /event in my home town), Simone Weil, the French philosopher, was seen by some as succumbing to a death wish when she stopped eating, in solidarity with soldiers and despite tuberculosis, – by at least two others, feminist writers, as one who was attentive to the end. Can both be true?
Simone Weil stated somewhere that she was “poisoned by mother’s milk, that is why I am such a failure” – the biographical fact behind this is that her mother kept breast-feeding baby Simone when suffering from blood-poisoning – the mother, who wanted a son, who would have been Jewish Simeon – the one who heard/was heard – brought Simone up: Protected, with high expectations, to be a tomboy…

Barbara S said this on March 11, 2016 at 12:16 | Reply

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Solitary 4 Tomorrow