10 September 2009

read write prompt #91...Part Two

read write prompt #91: the self as memory, or vice versa, by celebrity guest poet joseph o. legaspi

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Part Two:

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PURSUIT
by Christina Hile

When she runs
her fingers through
my hair,
I am ready,
ready to tear
off my clothes,
to burn,
to arise as
something new,
but even in
the perfect arch of
her pinky
as she smokes
her Chesterfield,
it perches
on the threshold.

I've found
religion,
6, 7, 99
times, every time
it's going to
be different,
but every time
it finds its way in,
until it hangs
by silver claws
in the air,
like gauze.

When she traces
her tongue along
my intersecting limbs,
I am ready,
ready to lie upon
the willow branches,
to be her vessel,
to bleed again,
and again, three times
again, but even as
she bends, her back
curved like the
f-holes on a cello, it
lands feet-first on
my chest, heavy
as a stone.

read write prompt #91...Draft One

read write prompt #91: the self as memory, or vice versa, by celebrity guest poet joseph o. legaspi

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the first half:

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MORPHINE
by Christina Hile

They paint red Xs on the doors of the dead
and here I am falling in love.
They come, still they come,
but his beard smells like thyme
and his fingers lace my hair,
trace forgetfulness.

Their desire hisses down the hallway,
blood-red poppies sprouting from their fingers,
and they slither in their white gowns
like they know what I want,
what I'm willing,
one hungry for my body
and the other for my soul,
but I'm falling in love
and it's sweet as wild strawberries,
and the frost that settled
on coverlet and bedside tray
is melting, melting away.