Reanimated Lavender Granola Switchblade Nun rides again.

Friday, December 2, 2022

A Man

 

A man of some note,
wearing the planets on a chain
said,
'I can't swing a cat without hitting
a faggot or a 
whore
or a
sinner of some variety."

The birds inside my throat stayed silent
but I could feel
their wings
flutter.
I turned my shoulders to July noon
as a favor
to such small, light riders. 

A man of great learning,
with entire
alphabets lined up on the 
tip of his tongue,
kept them all like pets
and taught
each one
to balance prettily on a circus ball
while he went at them hammer and tongs
to no purpose.

Three times that season,
my eyes
became eggs
and fell to my 
throat/
nest.
Finally, flocks flew filigree patterns
all around 
my head
and a man said, "Harlot! Sapphist!"
and a man said, "Anarchist! Libertine!"
but I was an 
aviary/
melody
beyond such puny mewlings.


5 comments:

  1. Wow. Just wow. And we will gladly take "bargin bin Crane" any day, LOL! "Three times that season, / my eyes / became eggs / and fell to my / throat/ / nest." Amazing. Then the birth of those fledglings into words, flight. And you were an aviary... wow.

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  2. "The birds inside my throat stayed silent but I could feel their wings flutter." What an awesome response to the words in the first stanza, for I felt something the same as I read them and contemplated how many humans hold such horrible darkness and dont mind spreading it. The alphabets like pets - well, the entire poem - is one only you could write. Amazing.

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  3. STUNNING. So stunning. Sometimes you encapsulate such nuggets of power and beauty and this poem has them. The whole of the last stanza especially is pure *kisses fingers* from start to finish.

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  4. The imagery in this poem is perfection my friend! This is why I am certain you will end up in the school books of famous poets one day. I love the way you have made me envision both silence and words here. Your poetry is a scream that lands on the ears and the heart as a gorgeous sigh.

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  5. Behold the contrast between patriarchy and matriarchy, the one with its moral trinkets and circus bestiary, and the other its nested songs and creative births. An unsettling diatribe. Brilliant poetry.

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Spirit, what do you wish to tell us?