Sign Inventory 1 Week 7

Stopping for Gas Near Cheat Lake

Trees bent unnatural by wind,

then frozen, looking delicate as jewelry, but unwearable.

Miles of white, palest skin,

and the slash of the road through it. Who named this lake,

who lost? How clear is its water

when not frozen? Do the townspeople refuse to swim in it,

or is it a site for seasonal pleasures?

At the self-serve station, the man insists on filling my tank.

Has everybody in town lost

their money, what can I buy to save them? A cigarette lighter,

a hunter’s cap, windshield fluid…

some of my blood’s origin is here – a family with white gums

and skin blue as this dusk.

Something not right about it – one year they tested vials

over and over. The doctors:

You’ll need to come in again; your blood is strangely thin.

What do you know of your heritage?

The houses are red on Fairchance Lane, their windows look

away from the banks of the lake,

tree-shaded places where lovers embraced. I could stop

the car, stand in all those shadows,

and try to find my face on the surface of Cheat Lake.

Or I could walk into town, find

my reflection in the eyes of a distant cousin, lead him

to the water’s edge, my white face

haunting him. For those who drowned, for those who escaped,

I demand an answer. Tell me,

tell me where I can find the bastard who named this lake.

                                                      Cate Marvin

-Poem comprised of seven four-line stanzas.
-Moments of rhyme, but no rhyme scheme.

- Pattern in alternating line lengths of short, long, short, long.
-The last line of the forth stanza and first line of the fifth are italicized. Positions this occurrence directly in         the center of the poem.
-Series of enjambments with the exception of lines 8, 16, and 17.
-Repetition occurs with "white" (skin, gums, and face).
-Four rhetorical questions and one question directed at the narrator from the doctors.
-Several references to liquid (lake, water, gas, windshield fluid, blood).