I'm going to have to be real original and say what Jill said. The naturalness of voice in the context is chilling and unfortunately becoming a reality for an aweful lot of folk. There have been stories about Tijuana in the media. I realize you are much further south but....

larry

Not much further south.   Not much at all.   I picked a bad time to make this move.  No doubt about it.  But somehow, perversely, although I would never wish or want my children here, this is an experience I am glad for; not glad for the hardships the citizens here, the everyday people and folk must endure, but to be in the everyday life of a place where the people have no control over the crazy violence that goes on all around.  Forgive me.  I am just home from dinner a half block away in the home of a friend who keeps very fine wine; I am home from two and a half glasses of exceptional syrah and real life close encounters with roadblocks and automatic weapons.

Wanted to say thank you, tom, jill, larry.  And here's to a good syrah every now and again.

Lynn, might you please post a google map link to where you are?

Lynn, if you see poor Syrah again, please let her know that they have at last found her parents! "DNA profiling found Syrah to be the offspring of two obscure grapes from southeastern France named Dureza and Mondeuse Blanche." Tom

Quite a proslepsis you got going here, Lynn.

Paralipsis, also known as praeteritio, preterition, cataphasis, antiphrasis, or parasiopesis, is a rhetorical figure of speech wherein the speaker or writer invokes a subject by denying that it should be invoked. As such, it can be seen as a rhetorical relative of irony.----Proslepsis is an extreme kind of paralipsis that gives the full details of the acts one is claiming to pass over; for example, "I will not stoop to mentioning the occasion last winter when our esteemed opponent was found asleep in an alleyway with an empty bottle of vodka still pressed to his lips."----Paralipsis was often used by Cicero in his orations, such as "I will not even mention the fact that you betrayed us in the Roman people by aiding Catiline."

It is also ironic that your "I keep my head down" is as alarming as some of the other details that must be avoided.

-Tom


--Tom

Just read your DNA update on dear Syrah, followed by "praeteritio, preterition, cataphasis, antiphrasis, or parasiopesis" -- as rhetorical tools -- and a wee update on Cicero (of whom Maggie has recently been bending my ear!) and I am in danger of overladening this gray matter, in which event I will keep my head down from the sheer weight of it all even while indoors!

Ugo, the Rosarito mayor, gave a speech regarding the current situation (what's being done, and what should be expected in the months ahead) to standing room only crowds at the Rosarito Beach Hotel on Saturday; he was met with a standing ovation.  They are doing their best.

Lynn,

Yes, hope you're all right. I am taking an extra break at work now to read about what's been going on...

By the way, an excellent poem-- the last few stanzas were especially provocative. (I think you could sort of clean up the questions that crop up early on in the poem... those for me were the weakest points. Maybe they were a bit too blunt? Elusiveness would be eerier...) Well done, at any rate.


Take care,

-O

Lynn;
i haven't been around for a bit and only had the chance to see this today.  this poem is so wonderfully constructed...there's not one single word i would question.  i think the choice of the long flowing lines fits great with the subject matter and enhance the presentation.  this is good good work.
john

Oleska!  So great to hear from you.  Of course I'll consider your comments, probably more so after some time has elapsed -- but the thing I wanted to have happen in this is that (astounding to me) feel of the nv (in this instance, me) being "at home" in this dreadful situation.  I am daily surprised by both the roadblocks manned with military and automatic weapons AND my movements through them with a car full of groceries, or cinder blocks to build another bookcase -- know what I mean?

And John!  Another surprise to hear from you.  Thanks, so much, for the read and kind comments.  I always hope the piece will work, but am seldom certain it does (except for, sometimes, pleasing me).

Thanks, everyone.  And, Milner ---- Thank You, again, for honoring this poem with front page.

lynn