Roman enough
with that snarl
that kept the daggars beneath her breasts
sheathed but still sharp,
something is always to be left out,
already written
in an old man's memoir
carved on a stele in a shadowed
corner of the forum,
the cats just move the shit around
how strangely the drinker eludes his drink
the stripes ripple at sunset
muscles of unrest.
the next lover always timid
in her stare.
Given time,
the stretch of imperial halls
will dim the bloody nails;
the broad backs raked
fall into dusty bone
the emperor another crippled
wreck
and the ship of state
sunk between her
well rowed thighs
as blossoming boys
write sighs into the walls
of the ruin
of another long night.
Author notes
"Lycisca"--Latin "Wolf-Girl"
See Valeria Messalina,
see also, Sarah Palin.
In a list
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Comments
1 - 6 of 6
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"the cats just move the shit around
how strangely the drinker eludes his drink
the stripes ripple at sunset
muscles of unrest."
I loved that stanza.
Excellent all the way around.
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In composure, it is the silent weapon sheathed that usually brings about the undoing of things, the inner quality of a voice that speaks and with no obvious outward signs that she lies, of course a nose like Pinocchio may help this, but we have only our intuition to tell us what is and what isn't. I like very much.
C
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messalina loved gladii enough not to hide it
same story
different faces
more hypocrisy - must be anglosaxon puritanism - and that explains the short span of the "empire"
I wonder if irony isn't the only law that governs this world... "and god gave the world to evil"
and when he decided is not enough he gave it to evil rednecks
those are more efficient at destroying things
whoa
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"and the ship of state
sunk between her
well rowed thighs"... Magisterial!
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You've always had a knack for showing us the future through the past with your poems. Or showing us how things never do really change that much.
I'm frightened. I really am frightened.
Check this out:
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080929/wypijewski
I'll consider my critical comment in a bit. Too true this.
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lol Well you were going to get a proper comment until I read your author notes and now I have to come back because I am laughing too much
C
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