Invisible Strings - 31. "Cocklebur" by Erin Belieu

"Cocklebur" by Erin Belieu

Since this poem seems to be narrated by a child or young teen (the first lines, "Summer over. Thorns / invaded the playground / while we were gone."), it would make sense that it could be in response to "seven." There's also a possible link between the two with the line in the song, "Your braids like a pattern," and the line in the poem, "We squat on the hot tarmac / braiding each other's hair." However, I've already chosen "seven" as a match with a different poem, and the darker tone of this poem is leading me elsewhere.

There are two parts of the poem that point me to it being linked to "mad woman":

I'm thinking of last year's
sleepover, when she told us
her stepdad scratches at
her bedroom door, begging
her to open up.

Then, later in the poem:

But I know what

a whore is. Or close enough.

And I hear that scratch in

the dark, know the creak in

the hall. Whore. How good

the word tastes when I put it

in my mouth. 

While it's hard to reconcile the age difference between the narrator in the poem and the song, the line in the song, "Women like hunting witches, too / Doing your dirtiest work for you," really reminded me of the second section in the poem above.

Similar in tone and a possible response to the song is this section of the poem:

We never

quite decide on the story:

what is it that found her?

What took her to the loneliest

part of the field? And what

were her crimes?