Reanimated Lavender Granola Switchblade Nun rides again.

Saturday, January 18, 2014

The Spider Bride

I am Night.
I told you so from the start.
Half-asleep all the time, 
lit stars spill from my lips as I talk nonsense beside you, 
never with any notion of what I say,
not remembering,
but no less la magnifica noche for my failings.

When we make love, I hold a spider in one hand.
She is no bigger than a white lie,
and as light as a first doubt.
She is silent, something I can never be.
Perhaps you will choose her,
your spider-bride,
and leave me reading my empty palm by wick light.

A black cricket may linger in my hair to seduce you.
Duplicitous and sleek, she could show you
the way to loose silver moonlight from my red tangles.
Then, in the morning, 
dressed only in my blue silk robe,
I would find her set beneath the paving stones near my door,
as people appear and chatter until I can no longer recall my dreams.

There you'll be, low in the early sky, smug Sun,
ascendant and arrogant,
insisting that even my long shadow
is more your child than mine.
_______


22 comments:

  1. chills - and it's over 80 degrees here. ~

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  2. Yes, this one is served cold, despite the fire in the inner chamber,( which seems to be learning how to seal itself and burn.) The conceit of the spider in the palm is as always in your writing fresh and instantly relatable despite the macabre associations that it and the night and all those white lies bring to mind. I feel like I'm brushing cobwebs--not the good kind--off my face throughout this. Your use of color here also stands out--the black cricket, the blue robe, the red tangles--all suggestive, all adding realism to the nightmare, somehow--and those last lines, girl--they are pure "Remember, and learn." But they just never seem to, do they.

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  3. No one does pain like you do, Shay. I long for the day when poem after poem of yours is all joy. You so deserve that. I especially love "lit stars spill from my lips". And oh the black cricket in your hair. HOW do you DO this????? day after day?????? I am in awe.

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  4. What an huge concept you have worked with here. I think of the mythologies which have moon and sun as lovers or combatants, and there seems to be a bit of both in this poem. The sensuality of description makes it all the more tactile and empathetic. The inclusion of insects and colour are inspired and make this near as dammit to perfect.

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  5. ascendant and arrogant - I love how you put words together.

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  6. Tuff groove here, what the insides of taking a dark lover mean, writ large as night and leaking creepy crawly truths. A road song for safe passage through every overbright noon. Fine stuff.

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  7. "She is no bigger than a white lie,
    and as light as a first doubt"

    I had to go back and savor that . . . several times.

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  8. When we love a garden or a tree or a forest or an island, we get the spider, the cricket, more length than we can embrace, more love than we can own--even if we are the sun. I think the sun lies.

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  9. Hi Shay, my first time with your work, I think and I love the duality and interplay here -especially:

    "I am Night.
    I told you so from the start.
    Half-asleep all the time,
    lit stars spill from my lips"

    Terrific! With Best Wishes Scott www.scotthastie.com

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  10. "She is no bigger than a white lie, and as light as a first doubt." Love this...You write of pain with the words I wish I could find. Brilliant!

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  11. the age old battle between two lovers with completely opposite tendencies,moods,personalities...I have been involved in one of those...

    There you'll be, low in the early sky, smug Sun,
    ascendant and arrogant,
    insisting that even my long shadow
    is more your child than mine.

    and the wrestle of who possesses you
    _______

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  12. Gorgeous! Gorgeous! Complex, intense, visual poem! I love it and wish I had said what Hedgewitch said!

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  13. "...no bigger than a white lie,
    and as light as a first doubt." I LOVE this! Great imagery and so uniquely Shay!

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  14. Dang. You should teach a course in writing poetry. I'd need to take it.

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  15. I think of Shakespeare who loved to ground his metaphors with animals. Such palpable, bitter beauty in this.

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  16. Deep. The end is so wonderfully written.

    "insisting that even my long shadow
    is more your child than mine."

    Someone wanting to be you, more than you are yourself.

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  17. So many tell tale signs and hints but yet they are often ignored. Life could have been more meaningful and satisfying. Nicely Shay!

    Hank

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  18. you interweave shades of dark and light in every line and stanza, layering meanings and making connections between the extremes.

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  19. Very cool.. powerful, unique, imaginative... I could go on.. intense, forceful... that spider I can't get enough of her. I love it.

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  20. {{{ sob }}} please go back to work!

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  21. Your fabled thoughts align with perfection-you need to write another book! Funny, I just read about spider poets before coming here...

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  22. It's wildly imaginative and a bit old-school romantic at the same, and I, for one, would love to know how you do that.

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Spirit, what do you wish to tell us?