Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Rebecca Wolff’s "Parkeresque" is a brief yet intensely evocative poem that explores themes of absence, addiction, memory, and lost connection. The title itself suggests an allusion to Dorothy Parker, the celebrated writer known for her wit, cynicism, and themes of loneliness, heartbreak, and self-destruction. The suffix “-esque” implies an imitation or evocation of Parker’s style, setting the poem within a tradition of sharp, melancholic reflection. The poem’s clipped phrasing and rhymed concision contribute to its sense of inevitability and emotional compression, as if each line distills a larger, unspoken grief.

The opening lines introduce an unsettling desire: “I’d like a / lidless // Vicodin.” The word “lidless” disrupts the expected order—Vicodin, a prescription painkiller, comes in bottles with lids, suggesting control, regulation, and containment. To wish for a “lidless Vicodin” evokes an uncontrolled state, a desire for boundless relief or escape, emphasizing the pull of oblivion. This leads directly to the next word, “Oblivion,” which stands alone, reinforcing the theme of dissolution, both physical and existential. The connection between pain relief and oblivion is stark—whether emotional or physical, the speaker seeks a state of erasure.

The next couplet—“Countless / sensation of him // leaving the room. / Come back soon.”—introduces a second loss, that of a person whose departure is felt repeatedly. The word “countless” suggests recurrence, as if the sensation of abandonment is an ever-repeating loop. The abrupt, rhymed plea “Come back soon” is both direct and childlike in its simplicity, its symmetry underscoring the emptiness it seeks to counter. The longing here is both intimate and futile—the presence has been reduced to an absence, yet the speaker continues to wait.

“It occurred to me / fait accompli.” The phrase “fait accompli” (French for “an accomplished fact”) suggests resignation, the realization that what has happened cannot be undone. The pairing of these lines emphasizes the finality of loss—the speaker acknowledges that this departure, this separation, is irrevocable, even as the poem circles back to its reverberations.

“Clinamen. / Phantom limb.” These two words carry immense weight. “Clinamen,” a term from Latin, refers to a slight swerve or deviation; in the philosophy of Lucretius, it describes the unpredictable motion of atoms that allows for free will and change. In the context of the poem, it suggests a tiny shift that alters everything, a deviation that leads to inevitable separation. “Phantom limb” reinforces this notion—the sensation of something that is no longer there but still felt, an ache for what has been lost but continues to linger. Together, these words encapsulate the paradox of absence: even when something is gone, its presence remains in the body, in the mind, in the smallest movements.

“Black cat sleeping / (you used to be // next to me) / next to me.” The repetition of “next to me” creates a sense of echo, as if the speaker is caught in a cycle of remembering. The image of a sleeping cat adds a layer of comfort and eeriness—the cat remains, but the person who once lay beside the speaker is now gone. The parenthetical aside, “(you used to be / next to me),” functions almost like an intrusion of memory, disrupting the simple observation and inserting personal grief into the moment.

The final lines—“dreams our lost / telepathy.”—offer a closing reflection on shared intimacy and its disappearance. The phrase suggests a past connection so deep it transcended words, a bond that now exists only in dreams. The enjambment, breaking across the final lines, creates a sense of falling away, reinforcing the dissolution of that once-strong connection.

"Parkeresque" is a poem of longing and inevitability, its concise and musical structure mirroring the way grief loops and repeats within the mind. The interplay of prescription medication, philosophical detachment, and personal absence creates a layered meditation on pain—both the kind that can be numbed and the kind that remains, irreducible, like a phantom limb. The title, evoking Dorothy Parker, suggests that this is not just an individual experience but part of a broader tradition of sharp, self-aware melancholy, where humor and resignation coexist within loss.

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