The Ekphrastic Review
  • The Ekphrastic Review
  • The Ekphrastic Challenges
    • Challenge Archives
  • Ebooks
  • Prizes
  • Book Shelf
    • Ekphrastic Book Shelf
    • Contributors' Book Shelf
    • TERcets Podcast
  • Workshops
  • Give
  • Submit
  • Contact
  • About/Masthead

Decision in an Automat, by Jack Grady

11/16/2018

4 Comments

 
Picture
Automat, by Edward Hopper (USA). 1927.
Decision in an Automat

Is she brooding as she studies the coffee in her cup?
Does its blackness reveal what she has hidden from herself?
Has it a magic like tea leaves or a dark crystal ball
that will tell her her future, even if dreary, even if doomed?
We can only wonder why she lingers here,
where table-tops are anaemic-white and chairs
are hard and bare, where a vast pane of glass
reflects garish lights off a background of night,
and radiators don’t give a cough
or half a wheeze for comfort or heat.

Is it something that awaits her at home,
if she has someplace she can call a home?
But fur-lined coat and cloche hat insist she has money enough
for that. But is that residence more empty than this automat,
more lonely a place than this, and did she come here
for company but found only coffee instead?
Or is this what she wanted, solitude she craved,
an escape from shouting accusations
or from silent interrogations more probing
than the silence of this automat?

True, in the past, she sold herself cheaply
for two-bit parts, but today she was made
understudy to a Broadway star.
Yet she knows she’ll be told it’s just second place
in her life’s race, trapped and still circling in a cul-de-sac
that will leave her drinking coffee in this automat.
If you look closer, though, you will see there is hope.
No longer does she contemplate the contents of her cup.
Her gaze is raised above the brim and aimed
at some skyline just dawning in her mind.

The coffee has disclosed its truth,
and she has decided what she will do.
She will stride proudly out like Gloria Swanson,
with chin asserted, nose upturned, determined
she will be no second place. She will ride
under the Hudson with a ticket one way
on a train to sunshine and a new name,
to photographs and talent scouts,
agents and no casting couch for star-billing
with Valentino on the silver screen.

No need to be arraigned by an eastside lover.
No need to escape to an automat.
Hello, Hollywood, Rudolf and Charlie!
Good riddance, kiss off, New York!

Jack Grady

​Jack Grady is a founder member of the Irish-based Ox Mountain Poets.  His poetry has appeared online or in print in many literary journals and anthologies, including such publications as Crannóg; Live Encounters; The Ekphrastic Review; The Galway Review; And Agamemnon Dead: An Anthology of Early Twenty-First Century Irish Poetry; North West Words; The Worcester Review; Poet Lore; A New Ulster; Mauvaise Graine; Algebra of Owls; The Irish Literary Times; Skylight 47; Dodging the Rain; Outburst Magazine; Poesia a Sul 1; 300K: Une anthologie de poésie sur l’espèce humaine; Mediterranean Poetry, and others.  He read in Morocco at the 3rd annual Festival International Poésie Marrakech, as the poet invited by its committee to represent Ireland, and he was invited to represent Ireland at the 3rd annual Poesia a Sul, in Olhão, Portugal.  His poetry collection, Resurrection, was published in Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK, by Lapwing Publications and launched in October 2017 and is available at Jack Grady – Lapwing Store.
4 Comments
Jessica Belair
11/16/2018 01:38:46 pm

I absolutely love this poem!!! It kept me so intrigued and guessing. I can relate to the woman in the poem! Great job Jack at touching a piece of my heart! 💜

Reply
Jim Ward
11/20/2018 05:48:50 pm

I love this poem. It is atmospheric like the painting it muses. I love Hopper and Americana of the 20s and 30s. I bought a book of Jack's in Galway, at one of Kevin Higgins' readings and will now go back to it.

Reply
Uncle Jackie
1/13/2020 03:39:34 pm

instead of being a decision about what to eat....she was making a decision about her life The title fooled me....I enjoyed reading it

Reply
Mary Fell
1/14/2020 01:00:57 pm

Very deft use of rhyme, Jack! I also like the poet's attitude toward his subject.

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    The Ekphrastic Review
    Picture
    Current Prompt
    COOKIES/PRIVACY
    This site uses cookies to deliver your best navigation experience this time and next. Continuing here means you consent to cookies. Thank you.
    Join us on Facebook:
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture



    ​
    ​Archives
    ​

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015

    Lorette C. Luzajic theekphrasticreview@gmail.com 

  • The Ekphrastic Review
  • The Ekphrastic Challenges
    • Challenge Archives
  • Ebooks
  • Prizes
  • Book Shelf
    • Ekphrastic Book Shelf
    • Contributors' Book Shelf
    • TERcets Podcast
  • Workshops
  • Give
  • Submit
  • Contact
  • About/Masthead