Reanimated Lavender Granola Switchblade Nun rides again.

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Bride



I was white dough--

Eating off vacant plates,

Writing little notes on edgeless paper,

Wearing a bridal dress in the indefinite glare of afternoons at home,

Marrying the empty air.


Time ran down my back.

I was a dim bird in a wire cage

Hung from a silly, flat, make-believe moon.


You think you are as common as kudzu,

As ashes in a fireplace,

As spirits in transit, thick in the startled air of foggy dawn.


No.


From the moment I saw candle flame reflected in a drop of water running down your bare arm to your wrist,

I have been dying of a fever.

In a sharp delicious burn, I talk the most vulgar rot--

Devils blush.

Whores laugh and encircle me, their Queen.

Doctors renounce their calling, becoming peddlers;

Priests go blessedly silent at last.

They all know

To get out of the way of this thing,

But I,

I

Bloom within it

Like a saint in the licking flames.


Other desires were foxfire.

Now,

My fingers go up like dry trees whenever I think of touching you,

And I think of nothing else.

My hair is dark smoke,

I come out of my skin, I spread.

I have to kiss you.


I am your bride in a black dress,

I never stay home,

My appetite is obscene,

I write everything in my own warm blood--

Don't leave me this way.

Kiss me now,

Kiss me hard;

I can beg or demand,

But kiss me--

Then you will see how my gratitude burns

In the sanctified sin of the sweet-grace moment

Just before the satisfied sigh of dawn.

_________

picture: Amy Lee

18 comments:

  1. Oh! There are so many delicious lines in this.

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  2. You write so beautifully. I can almost close my eyes and see what you're describing.

    This is why poetry so captivates.

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  3. wow, i'm speechless. You write with such captivating words :)

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  4. Oh this is BRILLIANT! Another one of your best. So many great lines:
    "the indefinite glare of afternoons"
    "a dim bird in a wire cage"
    "silly, flat make-believe moon"
    "spirits in transit, thick in the startled air of foggy dawn"
    "like a saint in the licking flames"
    "in the sactified sin of the sweet grace moment"

    My God.

    Brilliant writing!
    Absolutely brilliant.

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  5. So much passion for a simple Sunday afternoon. I feel like I have to go to Confession after reading this, only I don't even have a church home...and I'm not Catholic. I think I'll have some spiced apple cider instead.

    Cheers, amiguita! This was lovely. xo

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  6. I just fell in love with poetry all over again. Amazing work!!!! xx

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  7. i am speechless, that is hard for me...but this is an amazing poem and it's strong, sultry, and amazing...
    You will NEVER be as common as kudzu...this I know...

    Love you
    g

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  8. Yeow! Just in time for Halloween. Love it.

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  9. now that is a wicked kiss (just before dawn)

    Missed you!!

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  10. Phew! Wow! Brilliant writing (again)! :-)

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  11. Carmi said it so well .. as if he'd read my mind

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  12. My word. This is everything brilliant.

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  13. Lovely! I really like the "satisfied sigh of dawn".

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  14. girl you slay me.
    positively, absolutely..savagely

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  15. Shay -- I'm fanning myself...it's gotten a bit warm in this room. Wow.

    I absolutely adore this line, "My fingers go up like dry trees whenever I think of touching you..." That is so powerful.

    I also loved this line, "Then you will see how my gratitude burns in the sanctified sin of the sweet-grace moment, just before the satisfied sigh of dawn."

    I know you know these lines and probably don't need them repeated in your comment box, but I do so love writing them again and saying them aloud as I write them:~)

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Spirit, what do you wish to tell us?