Laura Page
Gamine as Only Existing in Depression Era Slapstick
After Modern Times (1936)
In Charlie Chaplin’s silent pursuit
of work-a-day contentment,
the gamine is for once concomitant
with gamin. A child. A street urchin.
There she is with a knife in her teeth,
taunting everybody, barefoot
on the waterfront,
many-elbowed with two bunches
of bananas. And the man—
remember me—? the bread?
The man—
picture us in a little home together.
In his mind’s eye, she owns
an apron before she owns shoes.
The man—
Smile!
And she does, like there’s a knife
in her teeth.
Like she’s hungry.
Author’s Note: This poem is part of a series of poems addressing the cultural tropes surrounding young women who fit the description of “gamine,” or “tomboy,” physically and/or sexually. It was my intention, in these poems, to interrogate and critique a specific way our society labels women and girls.
Laura Page is the author of epithalamium, selected by Darren C. Demaree as the winner of the Sundress Publications 2017 chapbook contest. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Rust + Moth, Crab Creek Review, The Fanzine, Tinderbox Poetry Journal, Human/Kind, Bone Bouquet, The Hunger, Maudlin House, and other publications. Page, also a visual artist, lives in the Pacific Northwest, and is founding editor of the poetry journal Virga.
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