Unanswered Question - Noelle Kocot

Unanswered Question

"I'm standing on so much wreckage
I think my legs will break," thought
Mary. Mary didn't want anyone
To know she was sad, so she acted
Pleasantly all the time. She had
The thousand-yard stare of a crack
Addict. People thought mean things
About her, like when she was a child
That she'd be barefoot and pregnant by
The age of thirteen, but Mary was
Not discouraged. Mary's whole
World was a giant string of deja vu.
When she met Roy Willbathe, Mary
Was as happy as a slice of snowy
Cheese. Roy looked like a vulnerable
Sheepdog in drag. Roy told her
Everything she wanted to hear, like,
"I eat my dirty business whole,"
And, "I will bathe...eventually."
Roy wouldn't marry Mary because
He said she was too loose. "But
I'm not loose at all, in fact I'm the
Opposite of loose." Roy smiled,
"See ya, kid." And Mary went back
To groping fruit in the market,
Pretending it was the body of a lover,
And eating disgusting things out
Of cans, while the birds chirped quietly
In the dawn outside her kitchen window
After she'd rubbed her wrists with
Scissors oh-so-quietly in the dark.

-Noelle Kocot (The Bigger World)

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Like the other poems in "The Bigger World," Noelle Kocot kicks off the poem with an inciting action involving a character, this one involving Mary who has become overwhelmed by the grief of losing her lover. Despite the underlying narrative being melancholy, the poem is hilarious and at times, absolutely absurd. Her lover's name is "Roy Willbathe," who promises that he one day "will bathe." Finding Roy apparently made her as happy as a molded piece of cheese, and her elders thought she would be "barefoot and pregnant" by age thirteen. Aside from these and other comical moments however, the poem's underlying, more serious theme returns during the conclusion and leaves the reader with a powerful ending, in which Mary gropes fruit like the body of a lover and "rubs" her wrists with scissors. Chilling, and quite haunting - the juxtaposition between humor and melancholy is awesome.