Poetry Month 2012: Laura Broadbent - Things Said In a Domestic Setting

Laura Broadbent's first book of poetry OH THERE YOU ARE, I CAN'T SEE YOU, IS IT RAINING? won the 2012 Robert Kroetsch Award for Innovative Poetry and will be published with Snare Books in the fall. Laura lives, writes, and illustrates in Montreal where she very recently finished her MA in literature.

Her artwork can be seen here: www.laurabroadbent.tumblr.com


Things Said In a Domestic Setting


She says that he says that she said something she didn’t say.
He says she says things when she means something else.
She says he says mean things.

He says she says he says mean things
and he says he does not say mean things.
He says he says things that mean something
and he says she says things
that don’t mean anything.

She says she can’t believe he says she says
things that don’t mean anything
and that he says he says things
that mean something because
what he actually says, she says,
are mean things that mean mean things.

He says she can say he says mean things
only if she lists the mean things he says
and if she can’t list the mean things he says
then he simply says things that mean things.

She says precisely because he says she must list
the mean things means he says mean things.
She says she can’t list the mean things he means
because she says he says she only says things
that don’t mean anything and she says that
if she says things that don’t mean anything
at least she says things that don’t mean anything
rather than saying things that mean mean things.

He says he’s sorry she thinks he says things
that mean mean things and that maybe she
shouldn’t invest such meaning in the things
he means because he doesn’t mean them.
He says that yes sometimes he says things
that mean mean things just to be mean.
He says for example he doesn’t mean it
when he says she says things that don’t mean
anything or mean something else, he is just
saying those things to be mean.

She says that what he says no longer
has any meaning no matter how mean
and she says she’s not sure they’ve said
anything that means anything anyway
so perhaps they should stop saying things
to which he agrees, happily.




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