Mary Karr - Field of Skulls

When looking for a poem to read I was really eager to choose something that wasn't necessarily nice and has emotion. I found Mary Karr's "Field of Skulls" to be honest and disturbing in all the right ways. The author starts off with a dark emotion that doesn't involve his feelings, but the readers. The image painted is black, like Mary writes, "Stare hard enough at the fabric of the night, and if you're predisposed to to dark." As she writes, their are few pauses; the story keeps going and keeps you reading. The use of detail a human feels is extreme in this poem, Mary does a great job creating this when describing a field of skulls. They are "A zillion scooped out crania." created by monsters from our past and our present, some which are "minor baby eaters unidentified- probably in your very midst, stalking the earth's orb." She creates the reality of the fear we feel we have to deal with on a daily basis, and how everyone is affected by the choices made by society. People tend to paint dark images when feeling self pity, Mary describes this by making the dead jealous of our living corpse. She finishes the written images with "could they not stare with slack jawed envy at the fine flesh that covers your scalp, the numbered hairs, at the force your hands hold?"

I really enjoyed this poem for more than the fact that is was not a fairy tale nor was it a story. It was a reality check of what really goes on inside of a dark mind and how everyday life can be twisted and formed into something completely different.