The Innisfree Poetry Journal www.innisfreepoetry.org by Michael H. Lythgoe
Flotilla
Ebony birds float like ballerinas on pointe, pirouettes; water fowl necks—arabesque—musical, jet-wings, sculptures swim, sable marble moored near the shore line below Pike's Peak, an onyx fleet, boats under raven sails; charcoal swans link in a love-heart of mysterious curves, cues; envision long low necks, a ritual meant to seduce, a dipping synchronous mirror image, cob and pen couple—feral, ornamental, symbols of a perfect storm, disastrous; black swans mean a surprise, the unexpected, unreal— Sandy—black lacquer paddlers, black pearls in a pitch pigment painting, reminiscent of a flotilla: a wound blooms in London, a drift of open black umbrellas.
Bosom With Lizard I touch my tumor like a charm. The Iguana Woman in Key West wears her lizard on a hat. The boy in San Juan offers his for sale. The Blue Iguana is a bistro in Vienna. Lunch on the border in a Chipotle mood, poblano with guacamole. Drink a dark cerveza with lime from Mexico. Her blouse opens. A lizard scales precipice, comes to rest in the crevice of her bosom. Her cleavage bears a scar, as a petroglyph adorns a cave wall, mars a rock; her curves, her bosom bears a carving meant to heal. But to burnish is not to finish. A body is a landscape; the Mojave desert is gouged by a downpour, an arroyo remains, closed by threads like sand through the needle's eye, but over-heals, shows scar tissue. The lizard scar feels like fine leather tooled smooth, Cordovan, decoration knots over seam and incision. Some tribes scar warriors and women. The Zuni carve a fetish, a turtle in Picasso Marble; art and spell in hand-fashioned stone rattlesnake with inlay accents, ornately etched. Feel the reptile in the skin. To excise a tumor we cleave the bosom; we leave a beauty mark. Give benediction to a body's scars. Kiss the landscape of the right breast pink, rose-granite, wound above aureole. Copyright 2006-2012 by Cook Communication |