Prose Poetry Pot/A Neo-Surrealist Prose Poem in demotic style

Prose Poetry Pot

A Neo-Surrealist Prose Poem in demotic style

Brandi Clark

The Serpent and the Rat

I always put the spent dishes on the counter if they’re still asleep and not in the sink. If I put them in the sink, they will clatter, and that will start them raging, and then it starts all over again. As soon as they get up, I fix it. The last few bites go down like bits of plaster, my esophagus contracting around them like a snake swallowing a rodent. I know this is wrong. I realize I am wrong, and they are wrong , and that this is not normal. I also realize I may no longer know what any of that means or how to fix it.

Editor’s Note/ Dr Pragya Suman: Brandi Clark is an English Professor and lives in Southern Alabama. This poem was included in the Arc Prose Poetry Anthology 2022. In this poem, the right margin is followed up, and it all goes in a first-person narrative way. Each sentence is capable of maintaining its individuality. At the same time, the interlinking is dipped in depth in a mystical layout. Poet is confessing to the reader and invitis to indulge in her confessional feat. Charles Simic and Russel Edson invented many Neo-surrealist techniques and The Serpent and the Rat reflects the same tradition.

Poem is written in simple and limpid language. Here we see the demotic style heightening to serve the poetical grace.