With her new book out, 2paragraphs asked poet Kallie Falandays to consider the question she most wished interviewers would ask her. She revealed it. Then she answered.
Kallie Falandays: Where does it hurt, Kallie?
Kallie Falandays: That’s a really good question, Kallie. It seems like sort of a strange thing to ask, though since Dovetail Down the House focuses on grief, I get it and I thought you’d never ask. It’s sort of like you’re the doctor and the patient. Or I am, too. Anyway, it hurts less now that you asked. Remember what it sounds like when Emily Wells sings, “tell me what you’ve done to me”? It’s sort of like that except all the mirrors are black. Sometimes it’s hard to tell. Some days it doesn’t hurt at all. And some days, we’re all a gash.
I can say that it hurts less when I read Jack Gilbert or Olivia Cronk or Mary Ruefle or Anne Carson or Rilke or Sappho. I can say that it hurts less when I think of the line “slowly across the grass comes the moon,” and when I think of Cat Power singing about being one of the devil’s daughters. It grows smaller when I look at Magritte’s “The Banquet,” and when I look at nothing, and when I dream, and when I wake up and hear someone’s voice. Even if it’s yours, and even if this is it.
[Learn more about Kallie at kalliefalandays.com]
