‘Suburban Dream’
— Hannah Cohen
I feel the burn on my face, already beginning
What I’ve come to understand about ekphrastic poetry is that the successful ones not only transcend the visual narrative of its origin, but also add new meaning and understanding to the artwork. Sarah Nichols’s poem in the inaugural issue of the too-cool magazine Bad Pony reveals itself as a powerful companion to the famous Diane Arbus photograph, as well as providing a new layer of context and appearance.
Without even looking at the original photograph, we receive strong associations of reality, touch, and sense: the observation that “[a] storm is coming” to the “low mosquito drone” coupled with the “ice cream truck jangle of nerves”. In just a few stanzas, we experience the hazy summer-dream of living in suburbia. How everything in this scene will eventually fade in real life, and yet this internal moment is forever captured because of this poem.