Fluorescence

In the second half of Jennifer K. Dick's Fluorescence, a lot of the poems seem to take on an almost "Alice in Wonderland" type of theme. A lot of the poems are surreal and paint pictures of strange occurrences  One poem that is an example of this is Looking Glass.

In this particular poem, the word surreal almost seems inadequate. The poem details a town where an alligator roams free, and a man is vomiting up entire fish that proceed to flop around on the ground, somehow still alive. The other townspeople then try to catch the fish with the hopes that they may eat them. This is a very strange, fantastical image; and not only that, but the people depicted in the poem seem unconcerned by these events!

I feel like this could almost be a commentary on the real world - where people want things and don't care how they come to acquire these things, even if it means taking them after a man vomited them up!