Baby Needs a New Pair of Shoes
Let's workshop this poem about a woman who is less harrowed by death than by the raging against the dying of the light: the white-knuckling vehemence with which creatures tend to cling to existence
Baby Needs a New Pair of Shoes
Death—that plummet
to the prebirth blank, to the blackless
noncolor a womb sees—
spooked her less than the monomania
to live, the rabid grip
(on disunity?), that has us
drown our own children
for one more gulp of airtime
in the casino of cosmic roulette.
"Baby Needs a New Pair of Shoes" delves into existential themes, exploring the paradoxical human instinct to cling to life despite the inevitability of death. The poem opens with a stark meditation on death, described as a "plummet / to the prebirth blank," evoking a return to a state of nonexistence akin to what is imagined before birth. The use of "blackless / noncolor a womb sees" employs a powerful visual metaphor to emphasize the unknowable nature of both prebirth and post-death states, suggesting a continuity of nothingness that frames human existence. This imagery effectively communicates the void that both precedes and follows life, challenging traditional conceptions of life and death as opposites; instead, they are presented as points within the same spectrum of non-being.
The poem then shifts focus from death to the fear that most unsettles the protagonist: not death itself, but the "monomania / to live." This phrase suggests a single-minded obsession or fixation on survival, hinting at an irrational, almost animalistic compulsion to continue living despite life's inherent suffering and futility. The metaphor of the "rabid grip" portrays this desire as something uncontrollable and primal, contrasting sharply with the abstract, almost serene contemplation of death. This compulsion is framed as a desperate attempt to hold onto something transient and inherently unstable—"disunity"—reflecting a human condition marked by fragmentation and a lack of coherence.
The poem’s dark climax arrives with the visceral image of parents drowning their own children "for one more gulp of airtime." This hyperbolic depiction of survival at all costs highlights the brutality of the instinct to live, where even the most sacred of bonds, that of a parent and child, can be sacrificed in the existential struggle for existence. The metaphor of the "casino of cosmic roulette" reinforces the randomness and unpredictability of life, likening human existence to a game of chance where the stakes are high and the outcomes are uncertain. It suggests that our desperate clinging to life is akin to a gambler’s last-ditch effort to win against the odds, an ultimately futile endeavor driven by a misguided hope for control over an uncontrollable universe.
Thus, "Baby Needs a New Pair of Shoes" confronts the reader with uncomfortable truths about the human condition, questioning the rationale behind our fear of death and our equally irrational desire to live at any cost. By juxtaposing serene imagery of death with stark portrayals of life’s desperate instincts, the poem invites readers to reflect on the nature of existence, the inevitability of death, and the often self-destructive lengths to which humans will go to avoid confronting their mortality.
existential themes, fear of death, human condition, instinct to survive, existential paradox, life and death, cosmic roulette, monomania, fragmentation, survival instinct, poetic meditation, human mortality, casino metaphor.