January Gill O’Neil: Pick of the Week [ed. Terence Winch]

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Manifesto

 

You can’t eat your cake and have it, too, says my boyfriend

and Ted Kaczynski, turning cliches into bombs. My boyfriend

who is not the Unabomber loves me from 1,300 miles away.

We dream over the phone, count the days until our next visit.

At Whole Foods before Valentine’s Day, I buy a red velvet cake

I’ll eat alone. A man walks out with a double dozen red roses

wrapped in cellophane. I miss my boyfriend. Can I eat my cake

and have it, too? Transposed verbs are what got Kaczynski caught—

his use of language, his arcane mind, but he wasn’t wrong.

What good is having a cake if you can’t eat it? That clumsy

phrase comes straight out of Middle English, straight from

my valentine’s red mouth. He long-distance laughs as I puzzle

the meaning but isn’t that the point? Love is a kind of syntax,

a soft rhyme, prison time. I’m eating my cake and having it, too.

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January Gill O'Neil is an associate professor at Salem State University and the author of Glitter Road (2024), Rewilding (2018), Misery Islands (2014), and Underlife (2009), all published by CavanKerry Press. Glitter Road was a finalist for the 2024 New England Book Award. From 2012-2018, she served as the executive director of the Massachusetts Poetry Festival. The recipient of fellowships from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, Cave Canem, and the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, O'Neil was the 2019-2020 John and Renée Grisham Writer-in-Residence at the University of Mississippi, Oxford. She currently serves as the 2022-2025 board chair of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP).  [Author photo by John Andrews.]

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Comments

[Clarinda]

I love the poem and agree with it too! Now I have go look up the kacynzki syntax.

[Abbie Mulvihill]

I love this! I love the voice of the poem.

[Bill Nevins]

CClever and wondrous poem which screams out REREAD ME--AGAIN! And the poem of course recalls to mind Richard Harris croaking "MacArthur Park" and bemoaning a cake melting in the rain. Love this poem. Thanks!

[Cindy Hochman]

Love the poem, especially the juxtaposition of the cliche right off the bat—and I say: LET 'EM EAT CAKE!

Thank you, January (what an apt name) and Terence.

[Robert McDowell]

A fun red velvet poem that speaks Truth--long-distance relationships are fermenting acts of terror, bombs building, building, and about to go off at any moment. So, eat all the cake you can for as long as you can, or can you.

[Don Berger]

I like the swing back and forth between the boyfriend and the Unabomber--it takes a good number of reads to track the poem, and even then there's still great mystery. An astute, ambitious effort to capture a complex situation. Intriguing commentary on syntax, the English language, meaning, many other things including love, juxtaposed with darkness.
Also pleased to see that you teach in Salem, January! I'm from Peabody and once took a class there at Salem State. Good poem, and Terence, good pick!

[lally]

made me want more, of january's poems, of terence's picks, of cakes

[Sr. Leslie]

Good poem!…I’m intrigued with the title: Manifesto..At first she says, “You can’t eat your cake and have it too”…and moves from there to a question, “Can I eat my cake and have it, too?…and from there to the statement, her manifesto: “I’m eating my cake and having it, too.”…Her voice gains in strength as she moves from what her boyfriend says to what she says…The route to get there is interesting and requires some more reads…Thank you January and Terence!…A great way to spend this cold afternoon!

[Elinor Nauen]

Agreeing (as always) with all these commenters & showering some January love on this wonderfully bright poem. Thanks (as always), Terence, for a weekly bolt of pleasure.

[Grace Cavalieri]

Where has O'Neil been all my life? (I know where Kaczynski has been.) SO glad to meet January who softens this January.

[Terence Winch]

Prof. Berger:  Thanks for the comment.

[Terence Winch]

Thanks, as always, Leslie for your comment.

[Terence Winch]

Michael: Glad you liked it.

[Terence Winch]

Thanks, Elinor (and happy new year to you).

[Terence Winch]

Thanks for the comment, Cindy.

[Phyllis Rosenzweig]

Loved "Love is a kind of syntax." Nice.

[Eileen Reich]

Wonderful poem. I loved it.

[Mike]

Excellent poem! Loved it ❤️

[January Gill O'Neil]

Thanks, everyone, for the kind words.

[Terence Winch]

OK, Mike! Glad you liked it.

[Jack Ridl]

What a poem! It takes me away from me and leads me into realization. Such an important choice. Thank you both.
Jack

[Terence Winch]

Thank you for the comment, Jack.

[Nita Conley Korn]

I loved this poem. I loved each delisious word.

[lola Haskins]

This is a terrific poem! I love the way it plays and doesn't play. Also, the mention of Salem State brings up great memories. Thank you Terence and January for both gifts.

[Terence Winch]

Lola: thanks for commenting.