Mowing

“Mowing” is a prose poem, which is more and more prominent in modern verse. Instead of using line breaks, prose poetry lays out on the page the way prose does, with each line ending at the margin. A prose poem lacks deliberate line breaks and sometimes stanza breaks, so the poem looks like a simple block of text. By mimicking typical speech, it invites the reader to read the poem without stopping for pauses imposed by the writer. The reader feels they are spoken to more casually, and ergo it creates a sense of intimacy between speaker and reader. The form eschews formality.

One poetic device Limón employs is the use of repetition. The word “mowing” repeats several times in short sentences. It’s a staccato rhythm rather than long, compound sentences or the choral quality of anaphora. It gives the impression the speaker is addressing the reader in a casual way, as though they are standing there while she watches the man across the street. It’s as though the speaker were a friend, bringing them into a space that is paradoxically meant to be private.