I'm a beautiful girl, made of ice.
I am water when it stops moving.
If you want me, it is either because you're crazy,
or because you see summer, still, inside me--
a season preserved that you can't touch.
Invite me in anyway, murderer.
Make love to me with a hammer;
don't kiss me unless you want us to stay that way forever,
not eating, not speaking,
like poets, or the damned.
I was an urchin once, making cat shit castles in my sandbox,
wondering what I'd be when I became a woman.
It rained and I became a mermaid instead--
winter stilled the waves and left me half in and half out,
half a woman who will never bear a child,
half a fish caught on a glittering hook.
I'm a beautiful girl, made of ice.
I am water when it stops moving.
If I want you it is either because I'm desperate,
or because I feel summer's seed, still, inside me--
a season destroyed, yet suspended in my touch.
_______
I hear bittersweet wistfulness & longing in this beautiful write. I felt it down to my bones & soul. XO :-)
ReplyDeleteIt rained and we became mermaids instead...... I'm realizing that more and more.
ReplyDeleteAloha
WOW!!! I am especially struck by "because you see summer, still, inside me". Which makes me think of e.e. cumming's invincible summer (that I love). The image of the ice maiden/mermaid, "half a fish caught on a glittering hook." Killer poem.
ReplyDeleteI super-love this poem. This is my favorite part:
ReplyDelete"Invite me in anyway, murderer.
Make love to me with a hammer"
But I adore the whole second stanza.
wow-ee. this be a tour-de-force! La la mosk
ReplyDelete"not eating, not speaking,
ReplyDeletelike poets, or the damned."
I love that.
Every word is a green tattoo of life over emptiness, and yet, and yet, the emptiness remains unchanged, sinuous, alive, devouring--a gorgeous, somewhat terrifying poem in every way possible, Shay. You are writing at the very top of your form.
ReplyDelete