Previous entries in the series can be found here.
i have eaten everything
that was in the icebox
you should probably go to the store again.
-wcw
i have eaten the little red wheelbarrow
that was in the icebox
and upon which so much depended
forgive me
i don’t even know why i did that
i guess i thought it was one of those little ice cream cakes
you know the kind that they shape to look like cars or whatever
that shit was disgusting
hey do we have any ice cream cakes though
-wcw
i have eaten the emperor of ice cream
who thought he could hide from me in the icebox
Let be be his finale of seem
sorry
-wcw
hi babe
are you at the store?
hi babe there’s something weird going on with the dishwasher
it won’t close all the way
i think one of the big wooden spoons fell through the slats or something
it keeps making this weird ca-chunk ca-chunk sound
i’ll call you and leave a message
so you can hear what it sounds like
-wcw
3 missed calls
1 new voicemail
hey if you’re at the store
would you pick me up some more of that red thing i like
in the tall box
honey i’m not at the store right now
i’m already on my way home
can you pick it up yourself this afternoon?
You sullen pig of a woman
you force me into the mud
with your stinking ash-cart
honey i’m sorry but i was just there yesterday
and i’m exhausted and i’m almost home
Well–
all things turn bitter in the end
whether you choose the right or
the left way
fine
fine i’ll go to the store
mm also we are out of plums again
so can you pick up some more while you’re there
thank youuuuuuuuuuuuu
-wcw
Tags: imagism, poetry, texts from, this is just to say i’m inconsiderate, william carlos williams
William Carlos Williams would be really shitty to share a house with is what I’m geting from this
I have eaten the white chickens that were in the fridge next to the red wheelbarrow glazed with rain water.
I thought about eating the emperor of ice cream, but he’s not in one of my poem. He’s in a Wallace Stevens poem.
They were delicious.
The chickens.
wcw
WCW would ABSOLUTELY eat the ice cream right out of Wallace Stevens’ poems.
i am the happy genius of this household so you will get me my fucking plums
YOU HAVE TIME TO LEAVE A NOTE YOU HAVE TIME TO BUY YOUR WIFE SOME GODDAMN REPLACEMENT PLUMS MISTER
He’s too tired from spending all night looking at himself naked in the mirror but it’s totally cool because he’s a doctor AND a poet. He’s so very important.
that old woman has plums
they taste good to her
I am so pleased. So pleased.
So sweet and so cold and so pleased
Bergy Bits versions
I eat all the pasta
I eat it all up
gimme yours
please mama
I want
too many cookies
for breakfast
I don’t understand what you mean by “too many cookies for breakfast.”
Haha, right?
(“too many” is the new fashionable number of cookies to request amongst Bergy Bits. The Diva swanned into the house the other night and announced “I want too many cookies!”, and now that’s what they all ask for every time)
Smart kids. 80 (that was my attempt at an open-mouthed cookie monster emoticon but it just looks like a number)
My parents would always only let me have two. I mean…two cookies, really? That’s never enough! So when I would ask if I can have cookies while the family was watching TV and my mom said two, I would go in the kitchen, shove one in my mouth, and then walk back into the family room with my two cookies. See also: dishing out a bowl of ice cream, digging out one giant scoop on the spoon and shoving it into my mouth, then walking back into the family room with a full bowl of ice cream.
This thread seems like the right place to leave this charming gem.
What is the red thing he likes?
In the tall box?
mm it’s like the thing with the sauce
it’s in the fourth aisle
Oh God thanks for this. I always thought he was such a dick for eating the plums. She was saving them for breakfast!
In high school we read this and myself and a friend thought it was a nice poem, that it implied an intimacy between two people of a level that allows for forgiveness- sure he eats your plums, but its because he’s hanging out at your apartment after last night and thinking of you and snacking. Left alone I’d certainly eat lots of your cheese and I wouldn’t be sorry, so maybe it’s just that I’m not a big fan of fruit.
But the whole class was like, “how can you forgive him! He ate the plums! THE PLUMS WOMAN! HE…HE ATE THEM!” And then my highschool english teacher said to us, “I guess you two are just doormats”, which i know she had a very bitter divorce and all, but that is no way to talk two 15 year olds interpreting a poem.
So I’m still on the narrator’s side.
I always liked her reply:
Reply
(crumped on her desk)
Dear Bill: I’ve made a
couple of sandwiches for you.
In the ice-box you’ll find
blue-berries–a cup of grapefruit
a glass of cold coffee.
On the stove is the tea-pot
with enough tea leaves
for you to make tea if you
prefer–Just light the gas–
boil the water and put it in the tea
Plenty of bread in the bread-box
and butter and eggs–
I didn’t know just what to
make for you. Several people
called up about office hours–
See you later. Love. Floss.
Please switch off the telephone.
I’ve also been partial to:
This Is Just to Say
FOR WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS
By Erica-Lynn Gambino
I have just
asked you to
get out of my
apartment
even though
you never
thought
I would
Forgive me
you were
driving
me insane.
I am agreed that WCW was probably at least a dick if not a real dick, but the narrator in that poem has always seemed sweet.
Love ALL of this, but especially that concluding “-wcw” on every text.
Love ALL of this, but especially that concluding "-wcw" on every text.
The thing that has always bothered me: PlumS. Multiple. Plums. Imagine: There are two plums. He eats one of them like a normal considerate human and writes a note: “I have eaten one of the plums but I saved the other one so that you could have it for breakfast.” He looks at the remaining plum. He looks at the note and thinks: this is a shitty poem I’mma eat the other one. Crumples the note. no breakfast for you, don’t even care.
Can you not be decent? Can you not reserve your appetite
for dinner in twenty minutes? What girl will care
for you, do you think, if you continue in these ways?
Must you taste everything? Must you know everything?
Must you have a bite of everything?
This thread seems like the right place to leave this charming gem.
hello everyone, there are no other posts tagged “this is just to say i’m inconsiderate” yet Mallory can you work on this please