Fingering to Inhabit Monkey House by Derek White can be found in the new issue of Double Room, the online journal Peter Conners puts out that looks in-depth at prose poetry/flash fiction. There are many times I'll read fiction/poetry from these seemingly merged structures, and typically refer to them as fictions myself, borrowing/stealing the term from Ed Falco. I mus also admit that there are many times I'll read one or two and, while enjoying them, have to sit back and question what it was I just read. What was the author trying to get me to think about, or what story was I intended to enjoy.
This piece has me doing just that, but while many times I come quickly to the conclusion that the author did not seem to have a purpose in mind, I don't think this is the case with White's work - I am just not sure I've figured out his intentions yet. But, this work has such great imagery, it's going to keep me coming back until I think I've got it figured out.
"A cockroach climbed out of the hole and up my arm. Being a man (in theory), I tried not to make an issue of it. I fished around to get to the source, pulling up dead roots, corn stalk stumps and discarded bricks. In the soupy muck I felt writhing eels, or what I imagined eels to feel like as ‘I’ had never felt an eel before. Corn Tassel filled my head. She was an electric eel in the black body cavity."
This portion comes from nearly the middle of the work, the narrator is reaching into what is called The Hole, with his mother standing over his shoulder. The story starts off quickly with him sticking his hand right in - no lead in as to why. But that sort of imagery seen in this sample paragraph is how White writes throughout the remainder of the piece, which might be 3/4 of a page long if printed out.
It's a piece that I read two days ago and has stuck with me, both the images and the idea - and to me, that means White has done his job.
Comments