KD
  • Home
  • About
    • Contributors List
    • Book Reviews
    • Award Nominations
    • Support
    • Contact
  • Press
  • Issues
    • Issue 50
    • Issue 49
    • Issue 48
    • Issue 47
    • Issue 46
    • Issue 45
    • Issue 44
    • Issue 43
    • Issue 42
    • Issue 41
    • Issue 40
    • Issue 39
    • Issue 38
    • Issue 37
    • Issue 36
    • Issue 35
    • Issue 34
    • Issue 33
    • Issue 32
    • Issue 31
    • Issue 30
    • Issue 29
    • Issue 28
    • Issue 27
    • Issue 26
    • Issue 25
    • Issue 24
    • Issue 23
    • Issue 22
    • Issue 21
    • Issue 20
    • Issue 19
    • Issue 18
    • Serenity
    • Issue 17
    • The Audio Room
    • Issue 16
    • Issue 15
    • Issue 14
    • Play It Again
    • Issue 13
    • Issue 12
    • Issue 11
    • Issue 10
    • Issue 9
    • Issue 8
    • Issue 7
    • Issue 6
    • Hand to Mouth
    • Issue 5
    • Issue 4
    • Issue 3
    • Issue 2
    • Issue 1
  • Submissions

Victoria Norlund

Advance to Boardwalk

Picture

Commentary

Victoria on "Advance to Boardwalk":

“Advanced to Boardwalk” emerged from a prompt: Write a poem using these words: summer, red, Grandma, chair.  I rarely use prompts…and I rarely write about preteen me, but this photographic scene that expressed the relationship I had with my grandmother poured out.  

I wanted the form to echo playing a board game on a lazy hot summer day–back when a day and a game and June and July and August stretched out endlessly before me.
 
My poems usually deconstruct and construct realities, blend the past and present, and try to make sense of a world that often defies logic. I wanted to follow the rules of that memory and explore my relationship not only to my grandmother but also to a self that has long since passed.  It is interesting to visit a self that no longer fits– to analyze a routine that is no longer a routine, a comfortable moment that has become a comfort.  
 
It’s funny how this mundane moment became a core memory – and how my present self felt the need to peel back the ordinary to discover a profound connection between two humans in different stages of their game. 
 
I so wish I could break out the Monopoly board and chat with my Grandma again.  Tell her how lucky I was to have this strong sage of a woman under the roof of my childhood who loved me so much she would give me the shirt off her back and Baltic for Park Place. But you can only go forward and you can’t change the rules to this game. 

I didn’t realize when I wrote the last line of this poem that the red pitcher fit perfectly with the monopoly metaphor–it had become a totem, and a tangible reminder now housed in a box somewhere in a corner of my memory.

Biography

Picture
Victoria Nordlund's poetry collection Wine-Dark Sea was published by Main Street Rag in 2020. She is a Best of the Net and Pushcart Prize Nominee, whose work has appeared in PANK Magazine, Rust+Moth, Chestnut Review, Pidgeonholes, and elsewhere. Visit her at VictoriaNordlund.com
back to issue
​Next Poem →
Picture
ISSN 2639-426X
© COPYRIGHT 2018-2021. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
  • Home
  • About
    • Contributors List
    • Book Reviews
    • Award Nominations
    • Support
    • Contact
  • Press
  • Issues
    • Issue 50
    • Issue 49
    • Issue 48
    • Issue 47
    • Issue 46
    • Issue 45
    • Issue 44
    • Issue 43
    • Issue 42
    • Issue 41
    • Issue 40
    • Issue 39
    • Issue 38
    • Issue 37
    • Issue 36
    • Issue 35
    • Issue 34
    • Issue 33
    • Issue 32
    • Issue 31
    • Issue 30
    • Issue 29
    • Issue 28
    • Issue 27
    • Issue 26
    • Issue 25
    • Issue 24
    • Issue 23
    • Issue 22
    • Issue 21
    • Issue 20
    • Issue 19
    • Issue 18
    • Serenity
    • Issue 17
    • The Audio Room
    • Issue 16
    • Issue 15
    • Issue 14
    • Play It Again
    • Issue 13
    • Issue 12
    • Issue 11
    • Issue 10
    • Issue 9
    • Issue 8
    • Issue 7
    • Issue 6
    • Hand to Mouth
    • Issue 5
    • Issue 4
    • Issue 3
    • Issue 2
    • Issue 1
  • Submissions