The Colonel

I can vaguely recall having read this prose poem/prose piece out of "The Discovery of Poetry" last semester when I took CW301. Besides the fact that I'm personally a big fan of morbid entertainment/media, I found Carolyn Forche's matter of fact way of dealing with the subject matter of her poem very refreshing. When she writes, "There is no other way to say this" I was struck by how calm she/the narrator seemed to be. I had to beg the question of whether or not what she was writing about had actually occurred in reality because she eludes to a semi-biographical tone when she says, "Something for your poetry, no?" I have no doubt that it could have happened, but whether or not it did happen would add considerable weight to the poem. I am thoroughly impressed with how Forche deals with such a horrible experience in such a calm and collected tone. I wonder if her tone seemed more distraught whether or not the poem would have the same effect on me, which was one of horror, disgust, and quiet. I think the tone of the poem is born out of the line, "My friend said to me with his eyes: say nothing." I believe this because the whole poem, although it is an afterthought, it is also a muted, muffled trauma. It is easy to see a young Carolyn Forche sitting at a large dinner table with a lot of guests, grinning through pain and discomfort, stirring in her chair and thinking to herself "my god, if there was only an easy way out of here" and The Colonel at the head of the table displaying his collection of human fetishes to the entire table.