Discharge
A new meaning for the word “soldier”? I don’t think so.
No, there’s a real war now, and soldier means what it always did. Patti closes that Finding a Voice section thus: “Perhaps I have been none but a scrappy pawn, but I am nonetheless grateful for the moves I came to make.”
She remembers to “salute all who helped me make them.” But really she credits herself. Her "PS Complete" voice acts upon the past like embalming fluid. The affected diction yields “none but a scrappy pawn” and a disembodied expression of gratitude to herself for her own accomplishments. These sentences could’ve marinated in formaldehyde. Locked out, the supervibrant visionary of the early to mid-70's. But neither is this the lyric sage, the widow and mother of sons at age 60. Something happens when Patti/now submits Patti/then to the process of re-vision.
Decomposing prose is always a tip-off. The woman who conjured Johnny pinioned into his locker and aware of only horses? Well, she went to Detroit. And now she wants her tombstone to say “She loved her husband." If she found her voice in NYC, something got lost in translation to hausfrau. She never lost her boyish figure, but she did her chores like a scullery maid. No, she kept her body pure: not-girl. But something seems to have changed in her heart and mind.
Patti/now keeps issuing benchmarks: "Complete." Where are the front lines now, or does it matter anymore if the shirts are nice enough?
No, there’s a real war now, and soldier means what it always did. Patti closes that Finding a Voice section thus: “Perhaps I have been none but a scrappy pawn, but I am nonetheless grateful for the moves I came to make.”
She remembers to “salute all who helped me make them.” But really she credits herself. Her "PS Complete" voice acts upon the past like embalming fluid. The affected diction yields “none but a scrappy pawn” and a disembodied expression of gratitude to herself for her own accomplishments. These sentences could’ve marinated in formaldehyde. Locked out, the supervibrant visionary of the early to mid-70's. But neither is this the lyric sage, the widow and mother of sons at age 60. Something happens when Patti/now submits Patti/then to the process of re-vision.
Decomposing prose is always a tip-off. The woman who conjured Johnny pinioned into his locker and aware of only horses? Well, she went to Detroit. And now she wants her tombstone to say “She loved her husband." If she found her voice in NYC, something got lost in translation to hausfrau. She never lost her boyish figure, but she did her chores like a scullery maid. No, she kept her body pure: not-girl. But something seems to have changed in her heart and mind.
Patti/now keeps issuing benchmarks: "Complete." Where are the front lines now, or does it matter anymore if the shirts are nice enough?
posted by MM at 8:39 PM
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