It Is What It Is [Five takes]
---- Big Frank Dickinson
[In which you'll have to deal with it.]
Hey! No more pink M&Ms.
It is what it is!
Yeah, I know what you mean – tough shit, huh?
Whatever – what're you gonna do?
[In which it's hard to explain.]
Hey, Sweetheart, what's going on here – this ain’t good?
It is what it is!
Well, maybe we ought to talk about it!
Don’t overthink it, OK?
[In which it can't be helped.]
The luggage never arrived! What'm I gonna wear?.
It is what it is.
What are we gonna do?
Screw it, man.
[In which you are fucked.]
Did you hear that my house burned down last night?
It is what it is!
Screw you!
Whatever.
[In which it's much too complicated.]
Life – what a bitch, huh?.
It is what it is!
What the hell?
You said it.
[In which you'll have to deal with it.]
Hey! No more pink M&Ms.
It is what it is!
Yeah, I know what you mean – tough shit, huh?
Whatever – what're you gonna do?
[In which it's hard to explain.]
Hey, Sweetheart, what's going on here – this ain’t good?
It is what it is!
Well, maybe we ought to talk about it!
Don’t overthink it, OK?
[In which it can't be helped.]
The luggage never arrived! What'm I gonna wear?.
It is what it is.
What are we gonna do?
Screw it, man.
[In which you are fucked.]
Did you hear that my house burned down last night?
It is what it is!
Screw you!
Whatever.
[In which it's much too complicated.]
Life – what a bitch, huh?.
It is what it is!
What the hell?
You said it.
4 comments:
Hello Frank! I love your use of speaking/dialog in this poem - it explores the content in words often left on the "cutting room floor" by poets busy with "image" and "semantics" - the focus on "pragmatics" here gives the reader so much more to experience. I really like how the subheadings call the eye back to them. The repetitions are like a ballad and they ask to be checked as the reader hears the differences and re-reads the headings. Very nice.
Jeremy,
Thanks for visiting, and for the appreciative comments on the "pragmatic" approach to poetry. Glad you liked it.
I liked it. Those five words can mean so many different things. That is the joy and fun of language, even cliches.
Why is what it is always used in reference to a negative? Can you write a similar poem with positive what it ises? (How do you spell the plural of is?) I don't know if it is possible. I can already hear you saying It is what it is.
You raise a good point. I will have to think of a context where someone could say: "It is what it is", and have it mean anything positive. It might be intended as a positive comment, but the pragmatics of its use in context and the semantics of that phrase really preclude anything positive coming of it. Unfortunately, it is what it is.
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