Blue-Eyed Boy

At work today somebody mentioned this poem, which I'd never read before. I read a little e.e. cummings early on in school, but I think I wrote him off because of what I saw as the "gimmick" of lack of punctuation and spelling, as well as the unusual arrangement on the page. NowI see it as an expressive device, where the form forces you to look at the poem differently.


At any rate, it's hard to argue that this poem doesn't stand on its own.

Buffalo Bill

e.e. cummings

  Buffalo Bill's
defunct
       who used to
       ride a watersmooth-silver
                                  stallion
and break onetwothreefourfive pigeons justlikethat
                                                            Jesus
he was a handsome man
                     and what I want to know is
how do you like your blue-eyed boy
Mister Death