Reanimated Lavender Granola Switchblade Nun rides again.

Monday, May 14, 2012

The House of No

Here is the House of No.
Has your trip been long?
Please remain standing.

Examine our literature,
Our list of the one hundred most beautiful words.
Wear this mask. Keep silent.

We've seen your type before, a thousand times;
We know how your arms ache for her smooth skin.
Hold them up--
We will teach them tolerance, wrapped in heavy casts.

We're wise to the way she falls from your mind in sections...
Sweet, as if her ribs had called your fingers from a dream,
To lay tender stripes from their tips to her heart.
No more of that.

We give no sympathy, even in extremity,
For the memory of her breath, warm and close on your face,
Or the turning up of her shoulders when she kissed you the way she did.
Empty your bag.
Give us those.

In time, you will no longer feel riven in two with impossible desire.
One day, her name will cease to seem holy, or even noteworthy.
Until then,

Come to breakfast,
Accept the cup of dust we offer;
Trust our healing methods.
Stop moaning.
Eat your rind.
______

for Real Toads Open Link Monday and Shawna's Monday Melting.


23 comments:

  1. The House of No, where compression is the specialty--how small can we make your soul?? This is deviously, vilely excellent, dark and bitter like coffee that's cooked to death in the pot but is the only thing left to drink.

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  2. "Come to breakfast,
    Accept the cup of dust we offer;
    Trust our healing methods.
    Stop moaning.
    Eat your rind."

    Such is the offer of the classicist. My goodness, where did this come from? It is too dark and yucky a destination, despite all the erudition.

    I'm not going there, I've been. Loved this Shay- Mosk

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  3. I'm impressed with your creative deviation; so glad you went there.

    This is funny and sarcastic, but still sad. I love the matter-of-factness in "The House of No." There doesn't seem to be any wiggle room here. And the speaker certainly doesn't care about anyone's feelings---"please remain standing."

    I think you are talking to yourself, by the way.

    The fruit "sections" are my favorites:

    "We're wise to the way she falls from your mind in sections...
    Sweet, as if her ribs had called your fingers from a dream"

    "Eat your rind."

    rosemarymint.wordpress.com

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  4. this infernal surreal explorations of your are stunning and yet leave a squirming in the guts.awed by the creative dissections you do.

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  5. The rhythm, the absoluteness...it's funny and tragic at the same time.

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  6. I can't escape the cup of dust...the dust to dust...where all the living colours of earth must go! An erotic exotic Gothic romp in the netherworlds!

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  7. Wow, Shay AND Warren Zevon. I'm in hog heaven. Lovely, ugly poem, dearest poetess. I'm deeply and hopelessly in love with your wild imagination. Keep on truckin'!! xoxo

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  8. No. The answer is no. And the commands. The direction. This is dark. It is bitter. And it is compelling. Well done!

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  9. But I don't want to forget her....oh hell, I'll fall in line, give me the fucking dust.

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  10. So beautiful... I especially like verses 3 and 4.

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  11. This sounds like a rehab facility for the broken hearted, offering the cure of rhetoric, false claims, and a diet of hopelessness. Ugh! You captured the total lack of empathy with an astringent wit.

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  12. Ooh, "the cure of rhetoric." I like that, Kerry.

    rosemarymint.wordpress.com

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  13. For some reason this just leaves me with a hopeless feeling.

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  14. Creeping angst, this is cool! Wickedly creepy in a prepare to be re-educated way.

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  15. Detoxing in a kind of surreal way.

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  16. You are impossibly brilliant. This just knocks poetry out of the park and into the ether.

    Sigh.

    I am speechless with admiration!

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  17. Damned joints that offer up all that you love and then make them off limits. What is that about? Whatever the case or the place may be, you illustrated it brilliantly.

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  18. Is this the way of the nuns? ;) LOVE it, Shay...oh yes, pass me the dust!

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  19. Fireblossom!!! Your voice is the most fresh! You have, each time, a seriously unique way of wording out pictures that make your reader feel on so many awesome levels! Thank you for this!

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  20. Oh, but the image of the "House of No" is stunning! :) As far as what she has to say... she is tough - but sometimes that is what needs to be heard - and eat your rind. Ha... (it probbly is good for you) Hmm ll of sudden my keybord is not typing the letter before "b". Gret! Tht will hinder my responses tody. ;P

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  21. If this weren't so good, you could make a reality TV show from it!

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  22. damn, girl! how in hell do you manage to get better when you're already sublime?

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Spirit, what do you wish to tell us?