SPLINTER BED

A few years ago a musician asked to work with me on song lyrics. He was in college so we focused on a college love affair. He gave me images, nouns, and adjectives from his life and I built a story around two young lovers who meet, break up and live apart, and then hopefully, get back together again. Of course, “A bed too small” is a reference to the single beds in college dorms. I took it as a central image for the relationship. Sometimes the closeness of a partner can be overwhelming, both desired and frightening.

The long bus ride in the fourth stanza is directly inspired by the fantastic 60’s Train Song, by Vashti Bunyan. The image of a woman on a long train ride – returning to a love and not knowing how she will be received, but taking the chance anyway – haunted me for years. We all stand on the shoulders of those who come before. There are few images or circumstances that have not been written about. It pleases me to use the ones that speak to me. Incorporating them into my work is a way to acknowledge their value.

[A long-way side note: Coming out of the movie Lars and the Real Girl, Rick Gordon, my oldest friend and ex-roommate, looked at me and remarked, “They say there are only six different stories. They were wrong.” If you haven’t seen the movie, it is a story both wonderful and unique. Rick also did the color correction on the film version of my stage play!]

Back on track, the collaboration didn’t reach completion, and I was left with an overly complicated song lyric. A couple of years later I was reading a poet – I think it was Eduardo C. Corral – who used what I labelled a “broken line” technique. He broke his sentences/phrases, separating them on different lines. The technique intrigued me, and I realized the song lyric would lend itself to this treatment. I rewrote and restructured things and eventually produced this poem. I like the technique, and I like this poem a lot. It does require a close reading, but the building of the images creates a rhythm of its own.