Reanimated Lavender Granola Switchblade Nun rides again.

Saturday, August 4, 2018

Lily

Direct sun is bad billet for cuttings.
Lily was long-stemmed, 
half drunk
half honest
night-starred
giving head to a bottle in a graveyard.

She never chose her own tattoos--
just once born, once baptized, 
seven times left crying  by the roadside.
Lily likes her Ginny with Georgia lime.

O Lily fair, Lily bright,
gives all her love 
to a runaway cat
and salts her bath with anything white.

Lily used to pose on a coffin lid
half sweet
half willing
 half live, half dead.
Long-stemmed Lily talking out of her head
to the peonies out by the garden shed. 

Of course she loves you,
tap-water blank with soft pale hands.
Lily fair, Lily bright,

long-stemmed Lily in your circle stands
almost straight
almost strong
almost saved, and almost 

gone.
_____ 

for Camera FLASH! at Toads.

13 comments:

  1. Accompanied by razor castanets ... this is bitchwhistle low, clear cool and DOA. Were such sexybeast growls found in a real bottle, I'd a never gotten sober. Naw, the vibe is opioid, pure peaches, selkie-stare, barbwire brassiere. Other side of the tracks.. Ahhh, where's Hedgewitch? She'd call it broom fuel. Great stuff.

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  2. WOW! This gives the lives of flowers a completely unthought-of dimension. Too many wonderful lines to quote. Loved every word.

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  3. I like this. In a way, this reminds me of people tearing flowers off wreaths and sprays after a funeral, to remember the person by. Although I know many of them, just wanted free flowers. Bad of m to say so but it is true. Lily lying on the casket lid...rose, lily, daisy - all of the girls displayed. Yes, this is a low growl and slow prowl.

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  4. What a glorious read this poem is. Poor Lily living a life on a tightrope with no good end in sight; what a wonderful interpretative poem reflecting her life bound for a sad demise.

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  5. A fabulous poem, Shay, with such strong imagery:
    'Lily was long-stemmed,
    half drunk
    half honest
    night-starred
    giving head to a bottle in a graveyard'
    and
    'half sweet
    half willing
    half live, half dead.
    Long-stemmed Lily talking out of her head
    to the peonies out by the garden shed'.

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  6. Something of this description reminds me of a Holly Golightly character: the vulnerable mixed with the enduring.

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  7. I really liked this even more reflecting on Kerry's comment. Yes definitely Holly Golightly theme here... a flower with a strength and fragility combined, a laissez faire attitude that (had she been a man) I also recognize from Meursault in the Stranger...

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  8. Epic. I would love to hear you read this ~~~~

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  9. Of course she loves you,
    tap-water blank with soft pale hands.

    I like the form, and feel to this whole piece. the pace, the beat, it has a hypnotic effect - and when I reach the above noted lines, I'm just a breath away from "oh wow" - what a cool image. "tap-water blank" ....

    and the ending is completely fitting - love the line break to really give the weight of the pause before "gone" -

    and I agree with Kerry, this really does have a Holly Golightly feel to it, which isn't a bad thing at all.

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  10. I want this to be mine SO badly. The rhyme works beautifully.

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  11. Wowza. The rhyme and the extra bit of white space at the end... Incredible.

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  12. This is the best thing you've ever written, that's how much I like it. I saw wow, and will add another. Wow! You should submit this somewhere.

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