| This poem is a form of encouragement--also a severe
criticism. It reads "I told you about some strange things,/and
you thought about them." "Strange" here means new or
original ideas, something that isn't popular. Many people consider
themselves very open because they consider new ideas, but really this
isn't any different from just listening to them for a minute. It's
no more special than me writing the two words "yellow box" and
you thinking of it in your mind. This reaction is compared in the
poem to a doctor making your leg kick with a rubber hammer. And all
that's accomplished is having kicked the draft from the hallway. "Good for you" is very snide,
and it leads to the last line which means: when are you going to stop
merely reacting to things and actually do something original, something
important? "We're all waiting" is also a kind of motherly
remark added for emphasis.
The background picture is the casket of Sun Yat-sen, a revolutionary
(though not communist) thinker who, even from his grave, is influencing
all of China with his ideas. The picture on the top is a demolition
man and his son trying to destroy a wall to get the bricks. His son
wasn't doing anything particularly constructive, just venting.
Though much of the demolition here is very tragic, this particular case
could be said to be a positive part of the construction process.
(They were busting down some ugly 80's building).
กก |
