Reanimated Lavender Granola Switchblade Nun rides again.

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Nun


Raise a child up in the way it should go,

And even the bad apple will fall damn near the tree.

Mama took every pill in the house--

She was country but tried to be posh--

Either way, Mama, they bury you in the dirt.



I'm the sale rack girl...

I ate an entire tray of cookies instead...

And I'm higher than a mailman on pay day.



I need to tell--

I need to tell you and Dead Mama something--

I'm out by the pool in my pepto-dismal pink dress and Payless boots,

Seeking Aqua-Jesus.



Aqua-Jesus lives out of reach of the squalor and stupidity of this world,

Down there in His perfect kingdom at the bottom of the in-ground.

Down there, far below the oil-tainted dead leafy scum at the surface,

He lives with Mary Magdamermaid

And several trident-bearing Neptunes from the Home Depot.



Aqua-Jesus, you're my last chance gas, my last call at Corinne's, my tampon machine in the restroom of my extremity.

Lovemelovemeloveme,

Snorkel up,

Enfold me.



Aqua-Jesus, here comes the apple that Eve should not have ever tried.

Imma fall,

Call it a dive,

Hoping that, face down in the crappy filthy pool, I can see you better.



Aqua-Jesus,

Make me your goldfish--

Overfeed me til I die,

Keep me in your cool coral reef shower curtain world

Where no one hurts,

Forever.



Let me be your beloved barnacle.

Let me quit this fucking world and float like a cute seaweed,

Down where even Your sacred blood looks like strawberry jam from a squeezie;

Down where every scream is muted in a gentle rising of bubbles,

As if the whole thing were just a giant champagne flute,

And we were just happy half-smashed lovers

Getting over,

Getting married,

Oh baby, getting it right at last.

_____

for One Shoot Sunday

photograph by Lauren Randolph

31 comments:

  1. "Getting over,
    Getting married,
    Oh baby, getting it right at last."

    The rhythm...the power. Sheeeet!

    Would you be ticked off if I spoke to the owner of that little independent publisher I know? I would direct her to your blog and your poems. She's done at least one collection of poetry, and did some interesting things with it.

    The bottom line: You need to have a book of your stuff out there!

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  2. Quite the depth of despair among satire. Here's to hoping the sheepish girl in pepto pink discovers Aqua-Jesus, and more importantly that he provides golden showers of love throughout her life and habitual wimples.

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  3. Shay this is BRILLANT...you and Brian have both hit nerve endings today...just love your Agua-Jesus your pepto-pink dress...(i personally despise pink)...and Mary the ...mermaid...wonderful...i am no water soul...need earth ... unable to swim or - not enough to be said about this sunday sermon....except feeling its blessing....thank you...bkm

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  4. Your words never cease to amaze me.....what a talent!

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  5. way to bring the sledge hammer today shay...you capture much of that hopelessness when finding god in a breath at the bottom of the pool seems to be a much better way...

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  6. I stand in awe at the gritty, potent, ranting power of the piece. I'll tell Mama ya done real good.. Awesome~

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  7. What a mix of the sublime and the trashy, the commercial and the eternal, the insane hope balanced by a brain too soggy to think, a heart floundering in the scummy soup trying not to be boiled alive...Magdamermaid is classic--along with the tampon line and so many others...every image works overtime, and the whole piece hangs together with the thrust of a gut punch from god.

    Can you tell I think its really good?

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  8. Christ.
    This is perfection.
    Gonna go drown myself in a chocolate fountain now...

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  9. you can put more power in a poem than anyone i know. brilliant!

    "Down where every scream is muted in a gentle rising of bubbles,"

    that made me shiver.

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  10. Totally brilliant genius material. 'Be the tampon in the restroom of my extremity.' I dont know how you do it.I am just so grateful that you do.

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  11. Powerful... brilliant write! Love the depths you have gone to here.

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  12. Hate this laptop. Difficult. Missed the word restroom, but you knew that. I also love the overfeed me like a goldfish.....you are such an amazement. Submit some of these somewhere. SERiously.

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  13. Is Coal Black morphing into Fireblossom? Or vice versa, down the verse road of vice? Yeah, we used the same pic, but I'm not sure how widely we diverged -- same gods, at least. (Persephone one of the daughters of the horse-union between Poseidon and Demeter.) Personally, I prefer my divinities down there at the bottom of the pool, but there's a hell of a lot of difference between diving and drowning there ... I know this doesn't have shit to do with your poem, but oddly my stepdaughter - she's 32, long estranged from me after I divorced her mom, long estranged from her mom down her road of addiction -- was found floating at the bottom of a pool a few weeks ago. Still in a coma. Your nun isn't far from her now erased perplexities. - Brendan

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  14. i don' mind if it rains or freezes long as i have my aqua jesus...boy do i love this, although if i were feeling worse than i already do, having used the same photo and written a darkling poem, i might jump out my first floor window... :)--
    I love this:

    I need to tell--

    I need to tell you and Dead Mama something--

    I'm out by the pool in my pepto-dismal pink dress and Payless boots,

    Seeking Aqua-Jesus.

    outta site. xxxj

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  15. What a spectrum you cover here - beyond the grave, into the pool, through the aquaJesus to the realization that posh or poor..dead is dead. Deep end stuff!

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  16. Oh wow, Shay! Some parts of this are just so sublime and then you bring it down the absurd--love that duality about this poem. "Beloved barnacle"--brilliant! And that ending is fantastic. Great poem!

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  17. You never cease to amaze. This one reads like a Southern Gothic novel, perhaps Flannery O'Connor. It's dark and funny and sad and eerie and fan-fucking-tastic!

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  18. Oh, this is so funny, and so sad, and at some point I started reading it with an accent in my head. My favorite bits: "Either way, Mama, they bury you in the dirt"; "sale rack girl"; "Mary Magdamermaid"; that whole tampon thing; the goldfish; "let me be your beloved barnacle"; and that ending gets a big WOO HOO!

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  19. I love uplifting poems like this! Makes me want to hug a basketful of puppies. ;-)

    But seriously, "Hoping that, face down in the crappy filthy pool, I can see you better". Brilliant! My inner Chuck Palahniuk is smiling at this.

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  20. I can hear your writing as a song very often....do you write songs? "Pepto-dismal" was a nice little gem.

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  21. Strong story-telling "voice" here - exemplary stuff.

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  22. This sure would get that evangelical set goingoff like crazy! I honestly do not know what to say about this one. That Mary Magdermaid...how strangely nice that is.

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  23. break the circle hunny, break it!

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  24. "Either way, Mama, they bury you in the dirt" - that line just leapt out at me, Shay, for it's simple and utter truth.

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  25. I just bought my very own Aqua Jesus action figure. He even came with swim fins. I created a shrine for him in my bathroom sink. Aqua Jesus is the bomb!!

    LMAO Another freaking fantastic poem Shay. When you get published, I want an autographed copy, please. :D

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  26. Warning:

    A publisher's gonna find you
    and pluck you from obscurity
    and the PO.




    Aloha ?


    Comfort Spiral

    ><}}(°>


    ><}}(°>

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  27. bated breath awaits
    polished poetic pearls
    pen leaks on paper

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  28. This is just fantastic. The imagery you conjure is fascinating as always. And I love the new (to me) look of your blog.
    Missed you!
    xoxoxo

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  29. Aqua-Jesus?
    Wasn't that a cheesey cologne from back in the day???

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Spirit, what do you wish to tell us?