"It would seem I had planned everything according to Hoyle"
August 4, 2020 7:31 AM Subscribe
Katia Kapovich (Body, 7/19/2014), "Soup Gazpacho": "it's Saturday, the supermarket is packed to the gills, the five cashier girls are busy like robots and don’t even have time to look up from their work. What's necessary is to act quickly and decisively. I tossed the package with the hot dogs in my purse, stacked the three freshly packed containers of gazpacho soup one on top of the other, and proceeded to the exit. Explaining why I did it would take a long time." Kapovich's story is semi-autobiographical. Her poetry, written in both Russian and English, includes "The Ferry" and "The Green One Over There."
Thank you for introducing me to Katia Kapovich, I will certainly follow her writing from now on.
Only partially relevant to the post, but I feel this is where I can mention it: the other day, I saw an immigrant women stealing quite a lot of food at the discount store. It was all family food, not luxury items. All through the store she had been calculating her purchases very precisely, so I knew she was stealing because of poverty and I didn't tell anyone what I saw. Here in Denmark, there have been very generous payouts because of corona, but not to the most vulnerable immigrants and refugees. We are all fucked.
posted by mumimor at 11:01 AM on August 4, 2020 [10 favorites]
Only partially relevant to the post, but I feel this is where I can mention it: the other day, I saw an immigrant women stealing quite a lot of food at the discount store. It was all family food, not luxury items. All through the store she had been calculating her purchases very precisely, so I knew she was stealing because of poverty and I didn't tell anyone what I saw. Here in Denmark, there have been very generous payouts because of corona, but not to the most vulnerable immigrants and refugees. We are all fucked.
posted by mumimor at 11:01 AM on August 4, 2020 [10 favorites]
I really like this.
posted by Night_owl at 10:34 AM on August 5, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by Night_owl at 10:34 AM on August 5, 2020 [1 favorite]
Love this, and glad to see Katia here on the blue.
Sidenote:
Katia's husband, Philip, a version of whom appears in this story, is also a poet I like. I run into them often at poetry readings in Cambridge--or did, back when there were poetry readings in Cambridge. One thing he does that I like a lot is this form he's invented: the embedded sonnet.
posted by what does it eat, light? at 3:27 PM on August 5, 2020 [1 favorite]
Sidenote:
Katia's husband, Philip, a version of whom appears in this story, is also a poet I like. I run into them often at poetry readings in Cambridge--or did, back when there were poetry readings in Cambridge. One thing he does that I like a lot is this form he's invented: the embedded sonnet.
posted by what does it eat, light? at 3:27 PM on August 5, 2020 [1 favorite]
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Modus Operandi is one of my favorite poems. I'm almost positive it's one of hers and the New Republic has just tragically misspelled her name as Katia Papovich instead of Katia Kapovich.
posted by cnidaria at 7:46 AM on August 4, 2020 [1 favorite]