The Pomegranate

♤ eighteen, American valley girl, history major, poet, writer, lover, spiritually a seventy year old man.

♤ favorite books: The Secret History, Inferno, The Bell Jar, The Pictures of Dorian Gray, The Great Gatsby, Little Woman, If We Were Villains, The Song Of Achilles. (And a bunch of fantasy romances we won’t name).

♤ favorite poets/writers: Plath, Camus, Poe, Kafka, Dostoevsky, Tartt, Didion, Shelly, Nin, Keats, Byron, and too many more.

♤ hobbies/interests: writing, reading, listening to music, hyperfixating on book characters, driving along the coast, staring in the mirror, conversing with straight men, eye contact, loving.

♤ what to expect from my page: I started my page a long time ago that had a much different look and post, which I refuse to get rid of. But now I’ll be posting my own poems, poems I like, my takes on books and other pieces of literature, pictures I find pretty, and maybe a rant if I have absolutely no one else to talk to.

♤ just this of my page as one big Gatsby party hosted by me, Noella, and my Daisy is the oblivion of aesthetic and absolute talent.

At Noon I hurry along the sidewalk while the pretty boy with no brains who I kissed once or twice tries to push a moment

In the Afternoon I take the same train with my childhood crush who touched me in all the wrong ways

In the Evening I pick up my dinner at the same place where a guy who neither I nor him fell in love but fucked a bunch

Is this what I want future generations to associate me with?

Would an English teacher praise me for it?

Does anyone else see the parallels between Ethel Cain and Cain from the Bible? Aside from the obvious lore that Ethel Cain is a descent of Cain from her mothers line I feel like this part of the long Janie really parallels and displays how history is repeating itself through the character of Ethel Cain.

It is believed amongst some that Cain, the first ever murderer who is mentioned in the Bible, was cursed by God as a punishment for killing his brother Abel to never die and roam the earth forever, never being given the relief of forgetting the sin he committed.

Which can relate to the line “you’ll keep changing, I will stay the same.” Meaning that Abel was, in a tragic way, able to transition from life to death, and though Janie does not literally die in the same way Abel does, to Ethel her presence dies in her life by becoming hateful and jealous when she got a boyfriend, much similar to when Cain grew envious of Abel when he was favored by God. Though it’s not entirely mirrored of one another, the emotional aspect and the way in which Ethel held Janie in regard to her life is in a way similar.

Another part that shows Ethel’s persistent relation and ties to Cain is the line “turn the page to find it blank except for my last name.” When we think of Cain, all we think of is the sinning murderer, the jealous and murderous older brother. Ethel only seeing her last name be what is left of her can be seen as her legacy and curse being what rules and defines anything she does, she can relate to her relative who is only remembered for jealously and wrongdoing, which may be how she worries Janie will remember her, the one person she truly felt loved and safe with.

And finally the closing line for the song which sings “I know you love her but she was my sister first.” In this line when relating it to Janie and Ethel, Ethel is talking to Janie’s new boyfriend and though he may love her and have her now, she was her best friend first, so close she was felt like sisters, and shows the sadness she feels to losing someone she loved as a sister over a new chapter Janie was stepping into, one Ethel could not follow. This can relate to the Biblical characters such as God favoring and through Cains eyes “choosing” Abel over Cain, though they were brothers first, once they were chosen by God they lost their bond.

The people of that town who murmured to themselves “young love” in a huff as they watched the preacher's daughter run into the vet’s son’s arms, did they eventually stop looking up, and mistake the trees rustling and the wind blowing for that thorough embrace for the rest of their day?

Those children who grew up scraping their knees on grass, watching the Cain’s girl sneak the Tucker’s boy through the back screen door after dinner, did it take all of them to grow all the way up and notice those kids who always seemed so much older than them, were finally the younger ones?

Did the teachers in school who gave up calling home when Miss Ethel and Mister Willoughby were not in attendance ever wish they had read their papers a little more intently? Find the signs, make them stay after class for a chat, or God forbid, call home?

Oh how sometimes I wonder how that old forgotten town of Shady Grove went on with their lives after the tragic and all too soon passing of Willoughby Tucker, did they say a hushed thank the Lord, that he now was not there to protect her, did they wish a little wish that she would soon follow after, and pray a harder prayer when they discover their wish had come true?

Was that what it would take for them to be wanted in the city limits.

Was there shock? Did they know it was coming all along? Was there a long silence that came over the mourning town, was it over by morning?

I wonder if blood from their knees is still dried on the tree bark, if Ethel’s hair is still stuck in the wired fence from that Fourth of July, if Willoughby’s favorite book is still tucked between those lockers down the main hall, if their laughs are still in the air and their shushed voices between the church pews, I wonder if time is a phantom that is not so forgiving to that old town of

Shady Grove.