don’t change the subject to the weather
don’t piss on me and claim it’s rain
don’t talk to me about the letter
your janus words are all in vain
your crocodile tears
couldn’t get any wetter
your plastic flowers
they don’t make me feel any better
you can cry me a river
but you won't drown me
in those eyes
though floods may rise
you can scrape on your fiddle
but i won't be dancing
to your tune
or whistling to the moon
let's tell the world we're still together
let our fixed smiles disguise the pain
our crocodile tears will flow on forever
the plastic flowers will make it seem better
I think the poem is very saddening, and it actually makes me feel down as well. According to Wikipedia, crocodile tears (or superficial sympathy) is a false, insincere display of emotion such as a hypocrite crying fake tears of grief. The phrase derives from an ancient belief that crocodiles shed tears while consuming their prey, and as such is present in many modern languages, especially in Europe where it was introduced through Latin. The phrase sounds even more hurting because it means that we know the other parties are not honest; that their words and their tears are a disguise of hidden ulterior motive. But I’m glad that the subject in this poem is not fooled, or else I’ll be burning with rage. Anyway, shout out to Mr Adrian who put Kim Hyun Joong picture as one of the illustrations of this poem! It actually caught my attention and it pushes me to comment on this post.
ReplyDeletePoetry is everywhere. It’s in the air we breathe, it’s in the rustling of the trees, it’s in streets of a city, and it’s in every corner of the universe; every place known and unknown to man. We are all poets. Some of us may not be through words, but through our actions and thoughts. This one is my favorite poem written by Liz rae
ReplyDeleteIf you were a poem, I would take my time. I would carefully think through all of the words, I would search for meanings that were more illusive and I would write them, not type them, on paper for you.
If you were a poem, I would let an artist draw what they thought was an accurate representation of you. I would let them etch out your words, paint out your imagery, and sculpt out your life, because you deserve to be portrayed in every aspect of art.
If you were a poem, I would carry you with me, all of the time, because I wouldn’t want to forget a word that I have placed from the ink of the pen onto the piece of the paper, and I would carry it in the front pocket of my purse, until the day I no longer carry a purse, just in case someone wants to read about you, and I will always have it handy, in that front pocket.
If you were a poem, I would have the priest read the words near my last breath, because I want you to be the last thing that I hear before I no longer have the chance to see you, and they would bury me with you, the words I penned about you, forever with me, until I see you again on the other side.
I enjoyed this poem a lot, as simple as it was, the certain words and references the writer chose to put in made the poem much more enjoyable to read. As I read through it, the main emotion that it contained was rage, rage from being deceived by someone and their fake or crocodile tears to be exact. It’s evident that the writer of the poem was hurt after being lied to by someone they trust and have now seen their conniving ways. I love the use of ‘plastic flowers’ in this poem, where flowers are usually used to convey an emotion or a sincere message, but the plastic represents that the flowers (and the meaning behind them) are merely fake. I also loved the line ‘you can scrape on your fiddle’, where it has a lot of hidden meanings in use: it could be referencing the idiom of ‘played like a fiddle’ or the fiddle in question could also represent the other person’s lies and cries for sympathy (which would match with the next line). The pictures Mr. Adrian chose matched with the poem really well, which might be another reason why I enjoyed it so much.
ReplyDeleteThis is pretty deep to me as a guy reading it. I do not honestly know whether the writer is a woman or a man, but this poem can refer to both side of feels. This is a poem that is filled with a journey. A journey of how the writer had felt during certain point of time in her or his life, and it might even still be happening until now. Crocodile tears is a saying that we see as a unkind sign. You say something without telling the truth. You do actions without having the meaning to do it. You smile without giving your true honesty in every expressions you make. You try to accomplish or earn something by faking things. Plastic. Plastic words. Plastic acts. I believe this is how the writer had been feeling trough his or her saddening time. And she or he showed the emotions through these words.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very interesting poem to me. I think that the poem tackles trust and genuine feelings towards a particular person as a topic, however this person of interest does not seem to be "real" with dealing the situation. I would like to point out that I found the reference to Janus, the two faced Greek god of transitions, passages and endings, very amusing. From the perspective of the writer, its seems that the writer knows full well the attempts of deceit and lies committed by their person of interest. Unfortunately, the writer could see through the acts and is not fooled by anyone. But not only is it about covering up an issue among them, it also mentions covering up their situation from others, perhaps their friends and family. And so they pretend that they are still happy although in reality whatever it is that they built has already crumbled.
ReplyDeleteThis poem uses very simple yet elegant words, but it really has strong meaning inside of it. At first, I thought the poem is about a person who has a toxic fake person as his/her friend until I read it once again and I'd like to think and believe that it's about a couple of lovers who are going through tough times. They have arguments. In a letter or maybe represent chat or message in this era, they act all lovey dovey but when they meet up in real life, they both just can't stand one another. The story goes on until the climax where they break up, one of them cried and give flowes and do some things blablabla, another believe that all of that is just fake. The ending lead them to finally get back together and be a stronger and more understanding couple than they ever was. I don't know for sure, guys. I just use my imagination and made this poem's into a story.
ReplyDeleteCrocodile tears are universally recognized as meaning "fake". When a child cries to get attention, those are crocodile tears. I guess this is a poem about someone who knew a person that acts fake a lot. Maybe this person is sick and tired of all the lies and tricks this person with crocodile tears have caused. In Indonesian it actually is a direct translation "mata air buaya". "Don't piss on me and claim it as rain" shows that they are literally pissing on us and say it was rain, showing that they cause misery in our lives and don't admit it. These are the worst kind of human beings that are out in this world. Well not really, we have terrorist, racists, and Trump. In the end I guess the poem shows a happy ending and that's always nice to see. At the end of the day, just throw away these toxic friends with "crocodile tears".
ReplyDeleteI am going to give my thoughts on the vocabulary that is used. I like the way the writer tell the idea of the poem from his/her head. The first one I am going to talk is the first verse which is frankly saying his/her desire. But, I also have an interpretation for the third verse which is, “your plastic flowers, don’t make me feel any better” I think the idea of this line is about the falsity. We know that plastic flowers are fake plants which are not truly alive. And all these untruthful things lead the writer to not give his/her emphaty to the person who is aimed to in this poem. I think this poem is about two people who decided to seperate from each other and there is some phases they need to go through which is losing one or another by the line, “Let’s tell the world we’re still together”
ReplyDeleteWhat hits me when I read this poem is the adult life that we as young generations cannot wait for. The realization of crocodile tears in my opinion scares me as it would mean that we cannot differentiate which is crocodile tears or which is actual tears. Not only tears that can be faked but actions too can have their own meaning towards their needs with us. This insincere fact about being an adult scares me because we would not be able to distinguish who will be there for us when there are some changes in our lives which then can create a disappearance on the needs of those people towards us. The most horrifying event that I can think of would probably be when I see someone who I thought was close to me in the office but when I see them again being a bit more successful, they walk past us as if we were a dust that had no impact to their lives at all.
ReplyDeleteI usually never comment on a poem post because I never really like reading poem and poem is not my thing but this, this is one special poem and deserve a clap for me because I think this is the only poem that I quite understand, and it is only quite not really understand it. I think the poem’s word are really simple and easy to understand that’s why I can understand it quite well. So in this poem I think the writer is describing a situation in a relationship of a marriage or something like that where one of them is being fake or acting fake just like a crocodile tears, because everyone knows that crocodile tears are fake, the writers describe it really clearly in those words and I think one of them has realized that either the boy or the girl is acting fakely but still they decided to act normally in front of other people.
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