I reached into the rivers of time
and found you waiting
with your lips curled into shining lures,
everglade eyes and fish hook fingertipsthrow in the line and reel me back,
back,
back againpull out the tape and measure your catch--
it's your greatest yetbut I can't breathe.
i was caught in your edge light.
the smoke played with it,
but never clouded your clarity.no stage, no soap box,
but a pedestal.
you came with stories to tell,
but no one cared to listen.you kept singing,
waiting for someone to notice
how the sounds in your throat
turned to birds--
birds that can't fly--
birds without feathers--
birds with no past--
birds with no present.you are an island, as they say.
"makes no difference anyway."you just kept on singing.
Sacrificial Offering by Rosella-of-Daventry, literature
Literature
Sacrificial Offering
Tethered to your tightrope,I shrank like a violetwhile you bloomed like a lizard's throat.Caught up in your currentof screaming amber waves,I dared to dream of life outside this shellof dead cicadas,but your empty spitbegged for lamb's flesh,and I am the last sacrifice.
my memories of you
are a dust bunny colossus
choking me,
replacing air
with lint.there was a path of hedges
like in The Secret Garden
that led me to you,
but the smoke-colored rabbits
bit at my ankles,
tore at my limbs,
hooked in their claws,
and brought me back around.I can't ever return.
tortured souls
sliding down
whiskey bottle necks.my fair lady wasn't so fair
when her chin kissed the pavement
and the church burned down.no presents to the children;
kris kringle is dead.
letter to a friend. by Rosella-of-Daventry, literature
Literature
letter to a friend.
keep your moon beams directly on me
lest the mist and the moth wings
blast me into oblivion.the glue streaming from your mouth made it harder to breathe,
but i kept filing the bars
until they were short enough for me to escape impale myself on.(it always ends up the same.)
my veins are full of the dripping sands of time.my brain is the Sahara.waking camels on the brim of the sun didn't help me in my travels.
their hooves were too cloven for grave-digging.
they stumbled about aimlessly
like my indecision
until they fell asleep again,
leaving me alone.the best desert dessert is milk and honey-
sweet and cold,
combatting the heat,but I can't pick the damned hairs out.
we are witches
we are all witchesour bonfire's a mile high
our broomsticks can make us fly
pull our stockings up mid-thigh
cackle at the passers-bywe are witcheswe drink potions to ease the brain
douse the pain in hot wolf's bane
dream of all the men we've slain
to keep us young and thin and vainwe are witcheswe gather memories we tether
just like sprigs of dried-out heather
we mix them in a brew together
and banish them back to the netherwe are witchesand when we've finished with the night
our coven starts to feel all right
we stagger home before first light
forgetting all about our blight...we are witches
teddy bear tent. by Rosella-of-Daventry, literature
Literature
teddy bear tent.
you're a sick pain in my wrist,
like arthritis on a cold Monday.terrified of your storm, i took shelter.i made a tent out of blankets,
teddy bears,
and puppy dogs.
in my soft cage i buried myself,
writhing in this rhythmic heat,
but that just made it worse.i clawed at my chest where my heart should be,
but i can't even bleed.this is a curse.
You grappled dragons and slayed gorgons;
you drifted on seas of sirens
to state your name.Dominions were built with the strength of
mountains,
but moss-covered
limestone
crumbled at your fingertips.Why is it you never expected
more than muscles to grow weary?Fretting over fights;
jetties at night
full of skeletons piled high.Hush the crowd with one word,
always unheard,
they continue to love you.In your dreams, you wished for recompense.
Their defense: you deserved none.Nightmares are now escapes from reality-
a quiet confidentiality-
not the other way around.So wear that badge of courage,
badgered by the current
of the overflowing river ...