John Ashbery

Laughing Gravy

time memory free verse dreamlike

Laughing Gravy - meaning Summary

Crisis and Awkward Intimacy

The poem juxtaposes a recurring, vaguely named crisis with intimate, awkward moments and surreal imagery. Voices shift between collective and individual perspectives, moving from blame and anxiety to a request for permission and a casual domestic detail. The final image—a factory of wolves pausing at noon—creates a paradoxical mix of industrial routine and animal threat. The result is a short, elliptical poem about disruption, social ritual, and the uneasy slippage between comic and ominous tones.

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The crisis has just passed. Uh oh, here it comes again, looking for someone to blame itself on, you, I… All these people coming in… The last time we necked I noticed this lobe on your ear. Please, tell me we may begin. All the wolves in the wolf factory paused at noon, for a moment of silence.

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