The Calculation, Regina Spektor

You went into the kitchen cupboard, got yourself another hour
And you gave half of it to me
We sat there looking at the faces of these strangers in the pages
Till we knew 'em mathematically

They were in our minds until forever but we didn't mind
We didn't know better

So we made our own computer out of macaroni pieces
And it did our thinking while we lived our lives
It counted up our feelings and divided them up even
And it called that calculation perfect love

Didn't even know that love was bigger
Didn't even know that love was so, so
Hey, hey, hey

Hey this fire, it's burnin', burnin' us up
Hey this fire, it's burnin', burnin' us up

So we made the hard decision and we each made an incision
Past our muscles and our bones, saw our hearts were little stones
Pulled them out they weren't beating and we weren't even bleeding
As we lay them on the granite counter top

We beat 'em up against each other
We beat 'em up against each other
We struck 'em hard against each other
We struck 'em so hard, so hard until they sparked

Hey this fire, it's burnin', burnin' us up
Hey this fire, it's burnin', burnin' us up
Hey this fire, it's burnin', burnin' us up


I chose this song because of its unique phrases and content. It has a lot of vivid imagery and startling, abstract ideas such as a computer made of macaroni pieces and getting an hour out of the kitchen cuboard. I think the whole song is a metaphor for a relationship the author had with someone. From the line about the computer counting up their feelings and dividing them up even and calling it perfect love, it sounds like their love was artificial and meager at first. Also, in the line 'didn't even know that love was bigger' Regina Spektor seems to be saying that they were naive and innocent. I think that the verse about them taking their hearts out an beating them up against each other until they sparked is symbolic of forcing themselves to love one another. She says that their hearts weren't even beating and were little stones, possibly meaning that they had no feelings for each other. This song also has some surreal parts which add to the story Regina Spektor is telling. It is interesting to picture hearts on a granite counter top for instance. This is a thought-provoking poem that could have many meanings and I think it's fantastic.

Time in the Kitchen

A hillside in a kitchen sink
makes the sink look smaller.
But only according to the eye of the lemon
sitting on a brick nearby,
waiting for someone to hop the fence,
struggle out of the faucet,
and squeeze it.
The juices will run up the wall,
snaking through cracks in the bricks,
and seep inside a pocket watch
triggering an alarm.
The alarm will startle the grass on the hillside,
cause it to stand up straight
and grow along the edge of the sink
until a garden is formed in its place.

Open

We reach out to the ones who nurture,
blindly extending and feeling through the dark
fumbling, hoping to grasp a hand.
The compassionate ones are able to expand,
soak up other's sorrows into their pores
and keep the needful from the far fall

For some it is inevitable to fall
the ones who forget what it means to nurture
leaving them open and exposed; their pores.
Their yearning to be comforted gets worse in the dark,
when they're alone and their imagination expands
the thoughts seem existent until they realize their hand.

She would always lend a hand,
tender and alive in the nippy air of fall.
The time of year when the trees expand
for one last breath which will solely nurture
through the winter and lengthening dark,
until the new damp air surges back into their pores.

Her motherly nature went deeper than her pores,
Sheltering her child with nothing but a hand.
She was wholesome, not a cell of her dark,
Never into evil would she fall.
Her purpose for this boy was to nurture;
Wrap him in her arms as his life expands.

Her boy’s mouth would expand,
Growing to let out a scream before shrinking to the size of a pore.
Telling his mother it was time to nurture.
On his back she would lay her hand,
circling like leaves on the ground in fall
not ceasing until his lids made everything dark.

With her peace she would make her tea dark
And watch as the bag would fill with water and expand.
Into sleep she wouldn’t let herself fall,
only able to relax half of her pores.
When she slipped she would wake with a jerk of her hand
And wait for the seed she intended to nurture.

If we’d all had one to nurture us through the dark,
we could hand out our hearts for others to expand
and keep our pores open so no others would fall.

Spectrum

It swirls with purple lies,

has gray memories not easy to keep

can be instantly overcome with red desire,

can be spinning with spots of white havoc.

It might flutter with irrepressible yellow excitement,

a blanket can suffocate it with orange fear

or it can be coated in blue elation like fondu.

Yet even with these open channels, it can still wander aimlessly through pea-green boredom.