How we cite our quotes: stanza, line
Quote #1
Marble-heavy, a bag full of God,
Ghastly statue with one gray toe
Big as a Frisco seal
And a head in the freakish Atlantic (lines 8-11)
These lines start us off with something pretty supernatural: a bag of God/statue that stretches across the entire United States. This image is pretty creepy. Just try to imagine a huge, Godly, ghastly statue stretched across the country. These lines set the tone of the entire poem – it's not bound by the limits of reality.
Quote #2
With my gipsy ancestress and my weird luck
And my Taroc pack and my Taroc pack (lines 38-39)
A cleft in your chin instead of your foot
But no less a devil for that, no not
Any less the black man who
Bit my pretty red heart in two. (lines 53-56)
Quote #3
Now we start getting into the meaty, more sinister parts of the supernatural in this poem, starring the most supernatural of the supernatural – the devil. This devil man has bitten our speaker's heart in two. But worst of all, this creepy, devilish man is our speaker's father.
I was ten when they buried you.
At twenty I tried to die
And get back, back, back to you.
I thought even the bones would do.
But they pulled me out of the sack,
And they stuck me together with glue. (lines 57-62)