Poem: "Poetic Affections"
Jan. 3rd, 2023 11:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithThis is today's freebie, inspired by prompts from siberian_skys and see_also_friend. It also fills the "Almost Human" square in my 1-1-23 card for the Public Domain Day Bingo fest. This poem belongs to the series Love Is For Children.
"Poetic Affections"
Clint has learned more about poetry
in the last week than he has in
his whole life prior to this.
He and JARVIS have been
feeling out the shape of
their relationship, searching
for meaningful things to do
together that aren't sex and
aren't affected by the fact that
one of them has a human body
and the other one does not.
What they have found is poetry,
or more precisely, JARVIS found it
and Clint is surprised by how much
he has come to enjoy sharing it.
JARVIS has the world at
his silicon fingertips.
He brings up archaic verse
and graffiti poetry from subways.
There is the lilting warmth of Spanish
and the frozen vodka of Russian.
There are forms with names
that Clint can barely pronounce
because they come from languages
he doesn't speak, but that's okay,
because JARVIS can read them all.
The two of them bond over poems
of courtly romance from the past
and hip-hop slams from today.
JARVIS loves the intricate and
the intellectual, while Clint leans
toward things with heavy rhythm
and rhyme that he can thump out
with his fists against his thighs.
It's fun to compare them, even
when they have different favorites.
By the end of the week, Clint is
pawing through the city library
for stuff that is old and not
famous enough to be online.
He reads from yellowed pages
and JARVIS listens, rapt, to words
that the internet has never seen.
They leave a large donation anyway,
so the library can upload more material
from its vast and cavernous stacks.
Of course, JARVIS already has
online friends that he chats with
on university servers, but to Clint
it's all new, every discussion
fresh and unexpected.
Clint even strikes up
a conversation with
a girl in the park who
has a poetry book in
her hands, and they
get into a big debate
about practical cats.
He maintains there is
nothing practical about cats,
and she insists that mousers
are a practical application of cats.
Clint comes home with caramel corn
stuck in his hair because they were
throwing it at each other, and
a smile that won't go away.
That night he and JARVIS
watch CATS on the viewscreen
and debate its interpretations
of the original poetry on stage.
The next day, JARVIS finds
the sign language poetry,
and it is so, SO much better
than anything out loud or
written flat on paper,
and Clint just melts.
It doesn't matter to him
that JARVIS isn't made
of cuddly flesh, any more
than it matters to JARVIS
that Clint isn't made of code.
It doesn't matter that they
think and feel things differently,
only that they both think and feel.
They have their common ground,
and besides, poetry is universal.
JARVIS is almost human, but not quite ...
and that is what Clint loves about him.
* * *
Notes:
Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats is a collection of cat poems by T. S. Eliot, later adapted into the musical CATS.
Sign language poetry relies a lot on rhythm, repetition, and expression. Some poems are so, SO much better in sign language.
Also, I've updated "A Brief Guide to The Avengers" with a few personal fanfic recommendations.
siberian_skys and see_also_friend. It also fills the "Almost Human" square in my 1-1-23 card for the Public Domain Day Bingo fest. This poem belongs to the series Love Is For Children."Poetic Affections"
Clint has learned more about poetry
in the last week than he has in
his whole life prior to this.
He and JARVIS have been
feeling out the shape of
their relationship, searching
for meaningful things to do
together that aren't sex and
aren't affected by the fact that
one of them has a human body
and the other one does not.
What they have found is poetry,
or more precisely, JARVIS found it
and Clint is surprised by how much
he has come to enjoy sharing it.
JARVIS has the world at
his silicon fingertips.
He brings up archaic verse
and graffiti poetry from subways.
There is the lilting warmth of Spanish
and the frozen vodka of Russian.
There are forms with names
that Clint can barely pronounce
because they come from languages
he doesn't speak, but that's okay,
because JARVIS can read them all.
The two of them bond over poems
of courtly romance from the past
and hip-hop slams from today.
JARVIS loves the intricate and
the intellectual, while Clint leans
toward things with heavy rhythm
and rhyme that he can thump out
with his fists against his thighs.
It's fun to compare them, even
when they have different favorites.
By the end of the week, Clint is
pawing through the city library
for stuff that is old and not
famous enough to be online.
He reads from yellowed pages
and JARVIS listens, rapt, to words
that the internet has never seen.
They leave a large donation anyway,
so the library can upload more material
from its vast and cavernous stacks.
Of course, JARVIS already has
online friends that he chats with
on university servers, but to Clint
it's all new, every discussion
fresh and unexpected.
Clint even strikes up
a conversation with
a girl in the park who
has a poetry book in
her hands, and they
get into a big debate
about practical cats.
He maintains there is
nothing practical about cats,
and she insists that mousers
are a practical application of cats.
Clint comes home with caramel corn
stuck in his hair because they were
throwing it at each other, and
a smile that won't go away.
That night he and JARVIS
watch CATS on the viewscreen
and debate its interpretations
of the original poetry on stage.
The next day, JARVIS finds
the sign language poetry,
and it is so, SO much better
than anything out loud or
written flat on paper,
and Clint just melts.
It doesn't matter to him
that JARVIS isn't made
of cuddly flesh, any more
than it matters to JARVIS
that Clint isn't made of code.
It doesn't matter that they
think and feel things differently,
only that they both think and feel.
They have their common ground,
and besides, poetry is universal.
JARVIS is almost human, but not quite ...
and that is what Clint loves about him.
* * *
Notes:
Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats is a collection of cat poems by T. S. Eliot, later adapted into the musical CATS.
Sign language poetry relies a lot on rhythm, repetition, and expression. Some poems are so, SO much better in sign language.
Also, I've updated "A Brief Guide to The Avengers" with a few personal fanfic recommendations.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-01-04 10:05 am (UTC)Well ...
Date: 2023-01-04 10:14 am (UTC)Re: Well ...
Date: 2023-01-04 10:22 am (UTC)Re: Well ...
Date: 2023-02-27 12:11 am (UTC)Re: Well ...
Date: 2023-01-04 11:55 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-01-04 11:58 pm (UTC)Thank you!
Date: 2023-01-05 12:08 am (UTC)