Geometric onion dome girl has a resentment against stars.
Everything must be rooved--taxis, coffins, bus kiosks, and especially churches
because every little light can't be a christ.
Geometric onion dome girl got a paper cut from a phone book
while trying to give blood to the past to revive it.
The operator denounced her,
just for old time's sake,
and quoted maxims instead of backing up her soul
with a more modern device.
Architects don't care about onion domes anymore,
and geometry is all angles and curves.
Revolutions never happen in the rain.
Tea is weak and poetry no longer burns.
Stars don't even light cigarettes,
and so the savior of circumferences plots a mid-point
between
ennui
and
effervescence,
shooting herself into space like old light in transit.
______
for the Sunday Muse #8
"the savior of circumferences plots a mid-point
ReplyDeletebetween
ennui
and
effervescence"
You are so wicked-awesome. I love your poetry.
oh oh oh! Forgive the one or just gisting reading - I'll sit with this for longer .... but holy hell, or cathedrals, I'm totally sitting with the last stanza and just soaking in it. Delicious, yet biting. Has that onion sting - and only heat can sweat the sweetness into an onion. (I once made this astonishing revelation to myself, about myself.)
ReplyDeleteYup, great image - and well, that's all for now. I'm going to sit with this awhile.
"... poetry no longer burns"?
ReplyDeleteIt surely does when Shay is the poet. ;)
It's sad when people see stars not as something to aspire to, but something to resent, because their existence violates their world view in some manner. Geometric onion girls are plentiful, sadly. Many of them are cultivated that way.
ReplyDeleteSuch a powerful poem of our times, Shay. You have blended your magnificent imagination which fair commentary on churches, architecture, individualism.. among other things.
ReplyDelete"because every little light can't be a christ." That is one of the best damn lines I have ever read.
ReplyDeleteYou are working at your best YET!!!
ReplyDelete"Geometric onion dome" Stopped me and I'm still fuddled by the concept.
"Geometric onion dome girl has a resentment against stars."
Oh yeah. Sets a tone balanced between deep/intellectual & colloquial. An easy connoisseur-ship by someone who likes dives and worn streets. See, this is why I relate to you.... now I gotta get back to the Warriors victory parade on the TV...
AND you used the word: rooved!
You're amazing
WOW! All spectacular, rising towards that exceptional closing.
ReplyDeleteYou have such a wonderful imagination, and way of saying something like no one else can or dares. So many lines I love! Like so many of your poems, I had to read it over and over to soak it all in.
ReplyDelete.....and thank you so much for joining us at the sunday muse!! :-)
ReplyDeleteSo evocative! Your mastery at whipping words around is profound. I imagining blood being given to the past. A wonderful write!
ReplyDeleteThis is one of my favorite voices of yours--with both the science and religious slant and the informal feel--the resentment of stars seems to spell out a lot that's wrong with our current state. The insubstantial(dare I say flimsy) quality of modern life seems nicely summed up in the last line, but there's also a historical feel that all this has been building/disintegrating for centuries("trying to give blood to the past")A fine, fascinating piece, Shay.
ReplyDeleteEvery little light can't be Christ...
ReplyDeleteyet we see stars in every potentate... the onion dome made me think Kremlin...
My goodness but you cut up those onion domes and made them sizzle in your pan. You just keep getting better and better!
ReplyDeleteThis is just fabulous, the last verse is a killer..loved every line!
ReplyDeleteArchitects don't care
ReplyDeleteabout onion domes anymore,
Architects play it easy now all given through their database. Great word-craft Shay!
Hank
Between the lost and the future this present, prescient, diminished, yearning capability, filling in where tea and poetry has been lost. Humanity is this chick, hip but getting hippy, still shooting for that space "between / ennui / and / effervescence," a dotage counted out in roofage. Keep on keepin' on, babe. (Applause.)
ReplyDelete