Cabezón


 * Cabezón**

By Amy Beeder

I see you shuffle up Washington Street whenever I am driving much too fast: you, chub and bug-eyed, jaw like a loaf hands in your pockets, a smoke dangling slack from the slit of your pumpkin mouth, humped over like the eel-man or geek, the dummy paid to sweep out gutters,

drown the cats. Where are you going now? Though someday you'll turn your gaze upon my shadow in this tinted glass I know for now you only look ahead at sidewalks cracked & paved with trash but what are you slouching toward--knee-locked, hippity, a hitch in your zombie walk, Bighead?

I watch you walk down the street when I'm speeding down the road. You look stupid with your hands in your pockets and your back slouched. You don't even have much of a job, and your life isn't very good. Where are you going? I know one day you'll change your mind and try to make a better life for yourself, but what it is you are working towards now?
 * Paraphrase:**


 * Biography:**
 * Amy Beeder lived in Haiti and Suriname working as a human rights observer for much of her life. There, she worked also as a high school teacher in West Africa. Many critics consider her to have an ominous tone and yet musical, rhythmic poetry. From Discovery/The Nation Award she received a scholarship and her poetry has been published in various magazines.
 * [note: more information pertaining to her life and the poem Cabezon is not available]
 * []


 * Notes:**
 * Amy Beeder is speaking of someone with a bloated ego but they get nowhere in life.
 * The title, Cabezon means two things: literally translates as 'big, bloated head', but Cabezon is also a type of fish (reminiscent of how she describes the person with the bloated head).
 * She uses lots of imagery to describe the big-headed fish-like person
 * The tone of the poem is similar to one that a guidance counselor would use (ie. like someone trying to give advice to someone who seems very lost in their life. Though she calls the person she's referring to a 'big head', it was meant more of a reprimanding comment. It almost seems like the comment was meant to make the person feel shameful about themselves and motivate them to do something with their life).
 * The diction in Amy Beeder's poem seems like she cares for the person but doesn't like the things the person is doing with their life.
 * Almost all of the poem is description, using words comparing the guy to an animal.
 * A lot of focus on the bad situation the person is in (i.e., sidewalks cracked & paved with trash; a smoke dangling slack; the dummy paid to sweep out gutters)
 * Speculations about Beeder's relationship towards the person she's talking about: a loved one? Son? Ex-husband, boyfriend? Maybe a childhood friend who made the wrong decisions in high school.


 * Sound Devices/Allusions:**
 * There is really no specific pattern that Amy Beeder uses in her poem. She also doesn't use any specific allusions to historical event or famous people.
 * An important thing to note is the fact that Amy Beeder uses unstructured and blank verse in her poem. This could be the case because she might be trying to mimic normal speech. The unrhymed poem also makes the reprimanding comments seem more prominent; since they would be more muddled amongst rhyming, sing-song verses.


 * Vocabulary:**
 * Cabezon: any of several large-headed fishes or (the Spanish word) for stubborn or big-headed


 * Literary devices:**
 * Imagery (comparison between person and the fish).
 * The imagery in the poem helps the reader imagine the life of the person Beeder's describing. Also, as stated above, the use of blank, unrhymed verse influences the sound of the poem (ie. the reprimanding, yet every-day-speech tone).

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 * Video:**

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