"The old gag about LPs being like gasoline / Puddles that go up and dizzy us / With their fumes, and of middle age / Rotating us out of Earth's orbit, stars like / A corrupted computer file / And the forgetful mind, a red-topped / Tupperware when we were young / Now without gravity or capacity like the shallow / Teacup and you calling my name / Like a soliloquy of wildflowers / Spilled and gone, I took all out."

— Greenbaum, Jessica


Work Title
Date
April 21, 2014
Metaphor
"The old gag about LPs being like gasoline / Puddles that go up and dizzy us / With their fumes, and of middle age / Rotating us out of Earth's orbit, stars like / A corrupted computer file / And the forgetful mind, a red-topped / Tupperware when we were young / Now without gravity or capacity like the shallow / Teacup and you calling my name / Like a soliloquy of wildflowers / Spilled and gone, I took all out."
Metaphor in Context
[...]
I decide against Steve's paraphrase
Of Brecht, "It's hard to describe the trees
When the police are in the forest," and also
The old gag about LPs being like gasoline
Puddles that go up and dizzy us
With their fumes, and of middle age
Rotating us out of Earth's orbit, stars like
A corrupted computer file
And the forgetful mind, a red-topped
Tupperware when we were young
Now without gravity or capacity like the shallow
Teacup and you calling my name
Like a soliloquy of wildflowers
Spilled and gone, I took all out.

(p. 83)
Provenance
Reading
Citation
Jessica Greenham, "I Took out the Part" The New Yorker (April 21, 2014): pp. 82-3.
Date of Entry
04/17/2014

The Mind is a Metaphor is authored by Brad Pasanek, Assistant Professor of English, University of Virginia.