Magpie Tale 97 – The Bite of Eve
Here’s a delayed Magpie Tales, a post based on a prompt from Tess Kincaid. Tess’s prompt was a picture of Marilyn Monroe laughing, but, frankly, I’d just about as soon be shot as write about Marilyn Monroe during the week between Christmas and New Year’s, so instead, I’ve focused just on a certain aspect of the photo, which I have re-done in my own manner above. (Please note that the poem is not intended to be about Marilyn–I’m just focusing on the mouth/tooth of the picture.)
The bite of Eve
A spirit of conviviality
is often partly propped
by good strong teeth.
Eve had to bite
in
to
the apple.
How unfairly difficult it seems
for the dentally-challenged
to sink their flailing
chompers into
an open-throated laugh. That bit
of the predator that seizes
humor, shaking it above
a thrown-back head as it
proclaims inside
I got it,
somehow denied
by the decay of those
squared sharp gates, blocked by
the absent bars
of canine, those
enforcers, you know, of
a certain kind
of kiss.
Tags: Bite of Eve poem, iPad art, Karin Gustafson, Magpie Tale 97, manicddaily, Not-Marilyn Monroe powm
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ManicDDaily 
December 28, 2011 at 9:41 pm
Toothsome! No, but seriously, I am reading this to mean that she seems like an all-confident I’ve-got-it-all predator and yet, on closer scrutiny, she’s victim and not snake/vampire.
December 28, 2011 at 9:41 pm
(I got cut off!) … a message nicely conveyed through your metaphors.
December 28, 2011 at 11:21 pm
Thanks. Though I wasn’t meaning to refer to Marilyn at all, just to image of large-toothed smile. I may make that clear. It’s just hard for me to think about Marilyn this time of year. K.
December 29, 2011 at 10:49 am
You may not have meant it to be Marilyn, but it’s Marilyn…
December 29, 2011 at 12:58 pm
Very cool!
December 29, 2011 at 1:29 pm
As always, I wait to see how you have interpreted the prompt! You never fail to please … the first thing I saw when I looked at Tess’ photo was the illusion of missing teeth. Good job.
December 29, 2011 at 3:50 pm
Thanks–well I was intrigued by the very prominent teeth and the missing ones, and wanted to do something a bit different–really about the toothiness of certain kinds of laughter– Thanks for your kind comment. k.
December 29, 2011 at 2:42 pm
i agree it fits well with her…the enforcers of a certain kind of kiss…yikes…i like the playful seriousness of this…