Poetry Forum

Giving Up The Rhinoceros

Stalking the Rhinoceros,
(even a blind squirrel
sometimes finds a nut)
I am not sure I even belong
in the field.

The Rhino is hobbled,
compiling the spring season
behind him as he goes.

He does not care to know
who will be the Republican nominee
so I can stay so closely behind him
that we are practically interchangeable.

The Rhino has logged thousands
of air miles. One can see them etched
into the complex folds of his thick skin.
He is aggressive in his accomplishments,
a sort of poster boy for ponderousness.

He has three daughters who live far up river
and never visit him. I begin to suspect that
both of us are sadly lacking in both
charisma and competence.

I stop and hide behind a tree
as the Rhino pauses to be interviewed
by a television commentator who wants
to elicit his views on affirmative action
in the jungle.

The commentator is a twenty-three year
old blonde woman in a tight fitting blouse
and slut-shoes.
She does not know so much as the time of day,
and the Rhino does not let her in on the secret.

Instead, tiring of her up-thrust breasts and giant lips
he steps upon her many times and resumes his journey,
looking back over his shoulder once to make sure that
I am still behind him. It makes me feel like a refugee.

I am planning, later this month,
to stop stalking the Rhinoceros,
and get a life of my own.

Gidday Robert

I liked this but am curious as to who this political figure is and how you happen to be tailing him.

He does not care to know
who will be the Republican nominee
so I can stay so closely behind him
that we are practically interchangeable.

What is that about? I suspect the last verse is linked to the above in some way but it is not clear to me. If it is not, I'd be tempted to drop it.

I am planning, later this month,
to stop stalking the Rhinoceros,
and get a life of my own.

All-in-all an entertaining read but it left me feeling I needed more information.

Cheers
Dave

kozmikdave wrote:Gidday Robert

I liked this but am curious as to who this political figure is and how you happen to be tailing him.

He does not care to know
who will be the Republican nominee
so I can stay so closely behind him
that we are practically interchangeable.

What is that about? I suspect the last verse is linked to the above in some way but it is not clear to me. If it is not, I'd be tempted to drop it.

I am planning, later this month,
to stop stalking the Rhinoceros,
and get a life of my own.

All-in-all an entertaining read but it left me feeling I needed more information.

Cheers
Dave

Hmmm...
I didn't get an e-mail notice of a reply. I just dropped in to read
and saw that there was one.

First, thanks for the reply.

The Rhino is an old poem. That is, it's about a year or two old,
but I did a little re-writing on it very recently.

The Rhino is a metaphor, which is very broad, and that's why
there isn't much exposition. He's a traveler of the world, at
least in imagination. He's been around, and he seen a lot
but he really isn't very good at abstraction and synthesis.

He doesn't understand much about politics, he's too interested
in personal Rhino concerns. I'm not sure, but I think he's an
artist, one who is philosophical rather than lucidly rational;
not a scientist at all. He's wiser, perhaps, than he should be,
and less realistic than he might be.

I think he's something like the audience of a talking head on tv
or radio, always ready with the voice of experience and expertise, but rarely knowledgeable or correct. He can talk politics, but
he doesn't know anything about it, and isn't really curious.
He knows his rights under the Constitution, but he can't name
what's in any of the articles. This is why he doesn't know who
is the Republican nominee.

He is being interviewed by the reporter in slut-shoes because
he is a very large animal, perhaps even the C.E.O. of General
Bananas Incorporated, but he's alienated and a bit sociopathic,
so when she bores him with her drivel, he takes the easy way
out. Nothing is going to stop him, after all.

He is the mental and emotional inertia of the human race, to be
exact. He is the collective ability to make a path of progress
through the jungle simply because no one can stop him, even
though he tends to destroy entire forests just to get a few
bushels of tender leaves down his throat.

The man following him has bought the success story and is
following him, hoping to learn....whatever it is that he will
learn that will make him one of the Chosen People. Humans
like to think that there is some magical Power out there, known
to the elite that will enable them to Live The Good Life if only
they can learn the Secret Code of the People On Top.

Then they can use the secret knock and the door will be opened.

But it never works out that way, you see. The rich get richer
and it's always by the subtle method of stealing from everyone
else.

Our intrepid reporter is beginning to suspect just what it says
in the poem, "both of us are sadly lacking in both
charisma and competence. "

He's planning on getting a life.
He probably will just get sidetracked by some other imposing
but futile attraction, and he will die before he gets a life.

It's hard to put all that in a poem, or at least it is for me,
because I am not a very good poet. So I went for a kind of
wry mood and let the end explain the futility of the journey
described, such as it was, in the rest of the work.

Thank you so very much, for that reply!

Gidday

Well, I asked for more information. You gave me a thesis. However, it was very lucid and the poem makes beautiful sense to me now. I had the feeling you had a particular politician in mind.

I know a few rhinos. Ignorant, rich bastards.

First up: Hobbled - leg-tied?

The Rhino is hobbled,
compiling the spring season
behind him as he goes.

Don't rhinos shit in big piles as territorial markers? Is that what this is about? That's how I'm interpreting it.

...I can stay so closely behind him
that we are practically interchangeable.

In which case, why are you staying so close behind him? Seems a bit unsanitary. Ok, I think you might have changed the thread a bit, but it conjures up such a wonderful image. I think I could play with this poem for hours. It has some really good images.

Cheers for the education and entertainment.

Dave

Tying a rhinoceros into politics is very apropos for a Canadian to read, as we have the joy in Canada of a wonderful party with origins in Quebec, where they take their politics trés serieusement. With a lovely twist of humour, they have originated the Rhinoceros Party, which wants to, among other things, bring the West coast into Canada by moving British Columbia from the west coast to mid Canada by placing it between Ontario and Quebec. I wouldn't doubt that they also originated the movement to give long, north-south rectangular Saskatchewan (In mid-west-Canada) to the United States so that the map of the USA would resemble the one-finger salute. But enough about our rhinoceros; yours is fun, too.

I wanted very much to hate this, having read the title, I thought I'd cut my teeth on it--but I found I didn't wish to. It is coy and well done, if not a touch vague.

I got to your explanation, though, and I think I actually lost respect for the poem because of its...detail. I think, perhaps, it would have been better to just say "It's about no one in particular."

Less is more.

Nice poem.

Cheers,

A.S.