Ruby’s Bar Graph

Ruby’s Bar Graph

Ruby inserts Justin Timberlake’s photo behind the creaky plastic window in her wallet, so each time she opens it, she can hear him singing God must’ve spent a little more time on you. She memorizes his birthday (1/31/81), favorite color (baby blue), favorite word (crunk), and parents’ names (Lynn and Charles Randall). During study hall, Ruby makes a bar graph of how much time God has spent on her classmates, where x = hours and y = beauty. On you on you on you, you, Justin sings, lifting his arm to point at her.

Lisa Low

published in Waxwing

 

Ruby’s Bar Graph 

Lisa Low

 what it means

 A Junior High girl has a crush on a teen idol. She uses the crush to enhance her self image.

 The route to loving ourselves is not always smart or good.

 We all need to find a way to love ourselves.

 why I like it

 All the concrete banal details crack me up, and I believed them.

 

I suppose you want me to say something wise about why this works as a prose poem and what actually a prose poem is, but I’m stumped. I don’t know why we’d call this a prose poem and not a mini-story for instance. It doesn’t matter to me. No matter what, the final image slays me every time. My heart beats a little faster, and I start to cry when Justin points to her.

I happen to like poems that are plain spoken and easy to read while still packing an emotional wallop.  

 craft

 I love that this is a story poem not an “I” poem. That distance gives me room to hate and love Ruby a little more.  I have no idea if Low made Ruby up, but I hope so. I imagine her pulling details from her own life and the heart wrenching agony of being a preteen to create Ruby.

 Low is being very careful with syntax. Every sentence is a different music.