Pike's Peak: 1957

          Pike's Peak: 1957

There was the week my mother drove from Texas
to Colorado with her parents, her sister
on the jump seat in the back of the station wagon
the trunk itself bountied full of sunflowers
my child mother picked roadside wrought with ants that crept
from the petals but how could she know?
She never saw them.

When they got to Pike's Peak her mother swam the lake
in a swimsuit pink and faded, hair slicked back
against her head, face washed free and eyelashes
invisible blonde and newborn.

Small waves splashed stones as she climbed
from the water, towels quickly in her hands
on her children, and sometimes my mother remembers
how later she wanted to see her, the woman
from the water again just dripped
just bright, just blurred in the sun
so fresh and vibrantly rendered.

Andrea Spofford
The Pine Effect

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Pike's Peak: 1957
Andrea Spofford

what it means

A daughter is telling a story her mother told her about a trip her mother took. 

We have moments where we see the world in a completely new light.  Seeing her mother emerge from the lake is such a moment:

from the water again just dripped
just bright, just blurred in the sun
so fresh and vibrantly rendered.

why I like it

I know this moment of suddenly seeing someone you love and who is so familiar in a new light.  It's magic.  I also like the secrets in the poem.   We know the ants are a problem, but we don't know what happened.  I like how this moment is in such liminal space--between states, between one view of the mother and another, between the water and the land.

I feel like there's a second story this poem hints at: what does it mean that the mother told her daughter this story about her childhood? what does that tell us about the current relationship?  I appreciate the layers in this poem.

craft

Spofford is good at turning nouns into adjectives or verbs.  In this poem, "bountied," is her made up word that works so well.  I definitely need to try out this technique.

It's hard to pick the right details and depth with which to tell a story.  In this poem, each stanza is its own close-up of a small moment that add up to the larger whole.  It makes me wonder whether the author started with a much larger story and narrowed down or invented from a bare outline.