This weekin live currentevents: your eyes. All power can bedangerous: Director alternating, you, socket to me. Plugged in and the gridis humming, this electricity, molecule-deep desire:particular friction, a chargestrong enough to stopa heartor start itagain; volt, re-volt-- I shudder, I stutter, I startto life. I've got my ionyou, copper-top, so watch how youconduct yourself. Here's today'snewsflash: a battery of rollingblackouts in California, sudden, like lightning kisses:sudden, whitehotdarkness and you'rehere, fumbling forthat small switchwith an urgent surgestrong enough to killlesser machines. Static makes hair raise, makes things cling, makes things rise likea gathering stormcharging outsideour darkened houseand here I am:tempest, pouring outmouthfullsof tsunami on the ground, I've got that rain-soaked kite, that drenched key. You know what it's for, circuit-breaker, you knowhow to kiss until it's hertz. .Daphne Gottlieb
About This Quote
The poem "This Week in Live Current Events" is a metaphorical representation of the electrical power of an electric socket. It means that when you plug into an electricity socket, you are becoming part of the grid. The electricity is moving through your body and causing your heart to beat. There are several things that can happen to you while you are connected to the grid.
First, your heart could stop or start beating erratically. You could also get shocked by the power or by a power surge. The line in this poem about hair rising because of static electricity is a reference to how a shock could cause a person's hair to stand on end when they get shocked by electricity.
Also, the line about the kite being soaked in rain refers to how a person's hair can stand on end when they get wet from the rain. In this poem, Billy Collins uses metaphor to describe how an electric socket is similar to an electrical circuit breaker because both devices help people withstand the constant current flowing through the grid.
Source: Why Things Burn
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