POPULAR MECHANICS

Popular Mechanics got me a little confused due to the fact that I could not figure out what the poet, Edward Nobles, was trying to say. It was not until I read it over three more times to understand what he was trying to explain. Although he was giving specific details, I could not get a hold of what this poem was about.

At first, the description he was giving was making it seem like Edward was just having deep thoughts within himself. Almost as if there was nothing else to do and was just bored. The description I got from him was that he was on the floor, really low to see under the dresser just enough to where he could see his own magazines. When a person is bored they have the tendency to find anything in the room interesting or anywhere that they are at. As he looks at the floor he notices the measure and length of the floor board, they are exact.

He describes seeing “The small clouds of dust accumulate beneath the bed.” (EdwardNobles121) Collecting dust bunnies is what he sees. He is viewing things as observational, visual phenomenal and does not think much about it. Yet as he gets into more details of removing undergarments, I quote got sidetracked because I was not expecting to get this out of this poem. “I pull her panties to the floor…the cloth is blue-I remember it-white cotton on the inner pouch.” (EdwardNobles121) At this point I get the idea that he may not be bored after all, but may be having some kind of intimacy with a woman.

I was not sure what he was trying to tell us, all the descriptions that were being given further into the poem like, “The elastic band contorts and expands. The cloth is soft.” (EdwardNobles12) Maybe I was not paying much attention to what he was trying to get across but I wondered if that was a description of her underwear as well or was It just something he was imagining in his head or these thoughts of words were running through his mind.   At the end of the poem it comes clearer and I was able to understand that he is in the middle of intercourse, “I hold tight, then begin to slide-slowly, not moving, up-ward, outward, into space.” (EdwardNobles122). Because he is being intimacy and passionate in that kind of moment, most people remember things and pay closer of attention to the things around them, almost as if there was a sudden stop in time, they are able to give specific details because of this.

I understood that part of the poem, but it lost me again at the very last paragraph. “I hesitate a few years at an iron leg, then move on, wondering at the blackness, the exactness of the measured line.” (EdwardNobles122).  It just all went from giving me an the idea of intimacy which was happening in real life to maybe just imagining it all in his head. My thoughts to this was, what if he did get bored and was just staring while lying on the floor and gave himself this imagery of intimacy and passionate in his mind. Sometimes the mind can wonder off on its own and it has the power to create these thoughts making one feel like they are In the moment.