Sunday before noon - introduction

[Kymani]

Hello all,
I am trying to translate Sunday before noon, a poem from At terror Street and Agony Way which is also in Burning in Water Drowning in Flame collection.
Impossible to understand the meaning of the introduction of poem.

spinach, Gabriel,
all fall down,
all fall down and blow,
barbados, barbados,
where are yr toes?

Any of you has an idea? Is it a citation?
Thank you for your help

 

[d gray]

good luck with that one! i think it's one of his "make what you will of it" poems.

i bet even he couldn't tell you.

 

[Hannah]

Impossible to understand the meaning of the introduction of poem.

Don't try.

 

[David]

If you try to understand what poems mean, you'll never understand them.

 

[Kymani]

Thank you for your answers. We never know.
There is sometimes unexpected explanations.

 

[zobraks]

Don't listen to these bozos, I strongly believe there is a deeper (palpably biblical) meaning behind those words. Keep searching.

 

[Firedogpoet]

I think the intro to this poem is all about Nursery Rhymes:
spinach - from A Frog He Would A-Wooing Go: 'With a rowley, powley, gammon, and spinach'
Gabriel - Samuel Gabriel Sons & Co. - A New York Publisher that used to produce books of Nursery Rhymes.
all fall down - from Ring a Ring o' Roses: 'We all fall down!'
and blow: from The Three Little Pigs: 'I'll huff and puff and blow your house down!'
barbados etc.: a reference to Eeny, meeny, miny, moe: 'catch a barbados man by his toe'.

 

[zobraks]

That makes sense, since his daughter was very young (a three or four years-old child) when he wrote the poem.
Being a caring father, Bukowski must have been familiar with Nursery Rhymes.