your lower lip pouts outward
sweet lure for biting
OK, maybe I’m the only one out there that finds inspiration in the oddest places–Facebook, a newspaper article, a thesaurus (!), and now it seems scrolling through the wordpress reader is also a source for that odd quirk that generates a poem. As soon as I saw the title for this, I felt a poem coming on, even though I had just written two.
So…..here goes!
this one time
no need for foreplay
or even to ask
just take what you need
I’m not even there
just my body
that woman
who said you were the best lover
she ever had
and faked 100 orgasms
is right now
somewhere else
accounting for all those lies
but
will you even notice?
It started so simply:
first, she would forget
where she put
the damned car keys
then, gradually
she misplaced her car
& forgot how to start it
& where to take it
& how to get home
& then which home
she needed to get to
just like that
I went from Susan,
to one of my kids,
to a stranger
One afternoon,
after she had unlearned
how to swallow,
but before
she forgot that she didn’t
like children
I combed her hair
the mirror framing
her face,
both of us watching
who’s that,
she asked,
gesturing towards
herself;
she looks familiar.
he said
you are my rib
& I believed him
flesh knit to bone so tightly
we were one person
but when she
showed up,
tiny spark
& flutter
on the ultrasound
the choice was easy
for me:
if I was his rib
he could walk away
mostly whole
but she,
she was my heart
& I go
with what is essential
mourning dove
melody balanced
on my rail
pulse–life’s melody
quiet, consistent murmur
humming beneath skin
The napowrimo.net challenge for today is to write a poem completely composed of lines from other poetry; or joyous, shameless theft, so here goes :). I chose a cannibal theme, as that is what this poem is–pure cannibalism.
The taste of blood is in my mouth.
the god who feeds on his father and eats his mother,
I wait amongst the walls above wavering innocence to demand.
A lust, a hankering for carrion, a misogynous torment
piranha women/on a horror rampage.
every artist is a cannibal
grind those bones between your teeth
Suppose I were to eat you
Pleased to meet you, pleased to have you on my plate
and what could be more intimate?
from Chris Wallace-Crabbe;The Cannibal Hymn (translated by Tony and Willis Barnstone); Devon Baker; Stuart Barnes; Bono; xAshx; Doug Holder; Grace Jones; Susana H. Case; Tami HO Lai-Ming and Reid Mitchell
My daughter, Zoe
12 now & full of questions
asks what I’m writing
haiku? Let me try
& she writes 5-7-5
3-5-3 quickly,
2 perfect haiku
joyful collaboration
we weave together
Susan Daniels Poetry 