I remember when you lied
about how you knew me
said we were old friends
from school
but we’d only just met
really
introduced by him
when he moved in
had nothing in common
except
I liked cars
and you had one
we hadn’t come
separately
but driven in
that was my lie
so now we’re even
Soundcloud link: https://soundcloud.com/clairevetica/lies
Photo by Christina Langford-Miller on Unsplash
when you drive it, memories come out
memories
of the memory car
the memory car has got a switch that can turn it on and off
do you know what it can go?
very fast!
there also is a backseat
for you
it’s so big
for you to get in
you can’t open the door
if you want to get in
because there is no door
we have to jump into the memory car
do you know what the memory car is?
it’s so long
do you know what it’s got?
a fire top
do you know where the memories all go?
out the roof
and like a pink one lands in my hand
can you drive it?
This was the Day 13 prompt (yesterday) to write about something that is mysterious and spooky in a bad way (like a witch), or mysterious and spooky in a good way (possibly also like a witch? It depends on the witch, I guess!) Or just the everyday, mysterious, spooky quality of being alive. This was a “found poem” taken mostly verbatim from something my four-year-old was telling me.
So we’re worried about the bridges now
don’t trust the men who built them
or just men
in general
suck
don’t they?
but we’re still driving across
in our cars
that men built
those same ones.
not exactly the same ones but
sort of
the polluting ones
where they fiddled the books
or the sensors
or the stats
to pretend
they weren’t so bad
after all
but they were
still.
And what about the Maldives
sinking beneath
the waves
of plastic
we made
one more long-haul flight
and I never take
a plastic straw
these days
just sink into the bedrock
of sandstone and granite
can the two mix?
blonde and dark
a fizz
you know what
the best thing I heard this week was?
that the heart and lungs don’t know
the exercise you’re doing
but the limbs
they know you’re running
you’re running
Photo: Claire Doble
try to pin thoughts
like pressing guitar strings into
my heart – tender meat – but
I never learnt that instrument
apart from listening
my fingers, so clumsy
I can’t. No. I can’t
understand anymore
where do I start
already halfway gone, and
there’s no place to
pull in
open up my bonnet
tweak the engine, maybe
put a new one in
Over the weekend, my brother and sister-in-law were in Zurich and since he’s a big car guy (and proud owner of an awesome Valiant Charger) we thought we’d check out the Dolder Classic vintage car show. I think this is the first vintage car show I’ve attended and I really enjoyed it.
It was a nice scene – people just cruised in with their cars and would stay for a few hours (it seemed) then head off. Some of the vehicles were for sale, others just for show. Afterwards we checked out a few more beauties in the car park as well.
There were lots of muscular Mustangs, curvy Stingrays, a Delorean, some real golden oldies and, of course, many Porsches — I think Porsche must be Zurich’s favourite marque, you see so many on the streets here. My favourite was probably the superb Amilcar Pégase from 1936 – the workmanship and details were exquisite. It was an Amilcar that caused the death of Isadora Duncan (her scarf got caught in the wheels and broke her neck) so that’s an interesting bit of historical trivia.
As well as drooling over all the pretty motors, the people-watching was lots of fun too. I enjoyed seeing a family of six emerge from a two-door Mustang, some elegant old dudes in an elegant, convertible Bentley, a stylish matron driving her zippy, royal blue 60s Porsche and a pair of rockers with face tatts, a vintage jalopy and a baby bump.
Anyway, I haven’t done a photo blog in a while and this really lends itself, so enjoy!
Anyone who thinks we don’t have inherent sexism in our language and most of our texts from childhood onwards needs to do this simple experiment. Take the popular children’s book Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell and switch the genders of all the animals to female. And suddenly the characteristics seem way loaded.
Here’s an interesting Guardian article about gender imbalance in children’s books. And another article about the fact female voices figure far less than male ones in Disney films (yes, even Frozen, which seems mad).
When I think of the films my 5 year old son loves such as Finding Nemo (a dad looks for his son, and aside from one main female character, all the other main speaking parts are male – the irony being that a male clownfish actually TURNS INTO A FEMALE if/when his mate is killed.) Cars (one main female speaking part, the love interest) and Planes (two minor female love interests and a female secondary member of the crew) it does make me despair.
We’ve also recently started watching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, a show I watched regularly in my youth. There’s 4 male turtles, their male mutant-rat ninja master, the male enemy – a Darth Vader style dude named Shredder – and his overlord Krang, his two male offsiders etc. There is one main, strong female – April O’Neil – a journalist, so that’s awesome. But do we really celebrate ONE main chick among NINE male characters? What kind of ratio is that? And how is it anything like real life? I could outline a similar catalogue for Star Wars and everything else but you get my drift. Sigh.
Also everything is Mr Sheen, Mr Muscle, Mr Mower etc. I’ve noticed this, along with the huge gender imbalance in kids cartoons, since I was a child and it always bugged me. I know this is because maleness is seen as “the norm/neutral” (I am not a gender studies expert, so excuse me for not using the proper terminology here) but still.
Going back to my first example. It’s not just that all the animals are male. I find that changing them to female gives the characteristics of the animals – She was too: Big, Tall, Fierce, Scary, Grumpy, Naughty, Jumpy – a whole different dimension that makes me feel uncomfortable in a way I’m not even sure how to articulate. What do you think?
Anyway…
Happy Mother’s Day!
clairevetica 