Reanimated Lavender Granola Switchblade Nun rides again.

Thursday, August 31, 2017

Ravenous

"Hold you in his arms, yeah, you can feel his disease" --The Beatles

Here is your ideal lover,
restless beside you in bed,
skin alive with a traveling infestation.
Reach out.
Go ahead.
Embrace the one who writhes as he sleeps.

Here is your constant one,
with words as sweet as rot
leaking from cracked teeth that teem with larvae.
Kiss him.
Suck his infected tongue with your lips
Because he cannot harm you.

Here is your adored one's treasured heart
housing sickening vermin.
Never mind the pitch and yaw
Of whatever fills his discolored chest.
He can explain all that, like so many times before;
Bring in a team to identify exactly what he is.

Touch him.
Kiss him.
Sit beside him and listen to him break wetly apart,
and, out of kindness, try not to vomit too obviously.
He is not what you thought he was.
He is legion,
and it is himself he devours, not you. 
_________

For Skyflower Friday. Monsters.

13 comments:

  1. Yeesh! This is scary.. I don't know how you mixed revulsion with a call for tenderness, but I felt the need to back away from this particular monster. Some monsters are so close, we barely recognize hem for what they are.

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  2. skin crawlingly real.....yeuch.

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  3. This is deliciously intense, Shay! Especially; "Touch him. Kiss him. Sit beside him and listen to him break wetly apart" and oh "He is not what you thought he was. He is legion, and it is himself he devours, not you" makes one aware of the danger that lurks. Beautifully executed.

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  4. I agree with Kerry, the tenderness and the disgusting weaved together... Love the end, makes me believe that nightmares can end.

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  5. I love your view of fear. That one can embrace the revolting mess of fear and still survive. And that it is he that devours....wonderful write!

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  6. Oy. Makes me want to brush my teeth, lol. Words that make the spirit squirm, as only you can dish them up. Unparalleled.

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  7. You speak the truth. We hate him. we are disgusted by him. Yet we are fascinated by him. Embrace the truth of it. (...and we start from there)

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  8. striking imagery - i just threw up in my mouth.

    killer ending, SP.

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  9. This is devastating in its imagery and intensity, Shay--the revulsion one feels when suddenly the veil is lifted is indeed as if one sees that monstrous corruption you describe in physical terms, which is really a corruption of the soul and heart, of all one hopes to find and tries to see in the Other--it's with difficulty we avoid shuddering and recoiling from a truth that is so rank, and yet somehow we always miss until the Thing dies, but recoiling only prolongs the stench. The solution of acceptance here is both sickening, and necessary. Really one of your top 5 poems ever, imo.

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  10. Oh God.....gross....and absolutely brilliant. Was pulled and pushed by your words, your imagery. But I don't want to come across this particular demon.

    Thank you for quickening my pulse. I live!

    Jane (Lady Nyo)

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  12. Relationship binds us to the beast. And we thought our own was bad enough. This is so well done, Shay, deft and demented. I hang a poster of "Love Story" over it, festooned with rubber-stamped skulls.

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  13. very interesting perspective and so well penned. your creativity is breath taking. Gracias!

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Spirit, what do you wish to tell us?