Posted by Atticus on October 4, 2004, at 14:07:39
In reply to Re: poem ... Pinches of Tender Yeti Tongue, posted by Jai Narayan on October 4, 2004, at 9:19:25
Hi Jai,
No, the supplicant/diner wasn't me. I don't eat in McDonald's -- my cholesterol would go through the roof. I figure he was just some poor shmoe who wandered in, ordered a Big Mac, unleashed horrors from H.P. Lovecraft (supersized ones, just like the fries you can order), and accidentally unleashed Armageddon. I somehow just got taken with the idea of an ancient evil god employing modern capitalism to take over the world, using fast-food franchises as his temples (I guess they're already ours). The idea came when I took a good look at a set of those "Golden Arches" at McDonald's and thought about how reminiscent of a pagan temple they were. Then I remembered the opening lines from a poem by Ruyard Kipling: "There's a yellow, one-eyed idol/North of Katmandu..." I put the two together to come up with a kind of trippy scenario. I really like taking the ancient and melding it with the contemporary. More often, I apply trappings of the Catholicism of my youth to secular subject, such as in the poem about Kerouac or the one about the ubiquitous Hello Kitty. I do have Catholicism to thank for handing me a ton of ready-made and resonant metaphors. Hope your foot is coming along well. Ta. ;) Atticus
poster:Atticus
thread:397679
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/write/20040925/msgs/398840.html