Poem & Critique: Plaid Skirt Cutie

Tonight I received over electronic mail a poem from “andy.treichler”--a man whom I don’t even know. The poem is below.

From: andy.treichler [mailto:wgvcwgetpyo@hotmail.com]
Sent: Monday, November 28, 2005 8:40 PM
To: david@awdsf.com

Subject: Plaid skirt cutie

Perfectly round natural 36dd’s
Babe loves fucking in stockings
barely legal boys gangbanging horny granny plumper
Teen amateurs posing

---

Also included was an "Internet Link" to a site that contained pornography. With regard to the issue of content, the spatial conflict between formal juxtapositions of thought and visualization piqued my interest.

The poem itself seems to be an attempt to capture all of reality within the confines of the poetic form--Mr. Treichler appears profoundly influenced by other Modernists, in particular T. S. Eliot and James Joyce.

The poem, suitably named “Plaid skirt cutie,” although not total, is nevertheless remarkable. What could have been a longer, more sustained and more elaborately lyrical work was instead offered as something less personal, tighter and more abrupt. However, it is precisely these qualities which lend the poem its air of modernity. Maybe in this sense we can see written small the larger tragedy of the 21st Century, of men trying to prove themselves equal to the Creator, while at the same time finding it necessary to admire His work.