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Open Poetry #47
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JerryPat2
Member Laureate
since 2011-02-06
Posts 16975
South Louisiana

0 posted 2011-07-21 10:14 AM


I see
the reason for my demise
in the haze of the bayou.
She leans
bare foot propped upon a cypress stump
a primeval, corporeal female.
She stares back at me
her eyes camouflaging their color
reflecting and taking on the hues
of old lovers.
She is a Chameleon
in the truest sense
an enigma
exposed for centuries
purporting the eyes
are the entrance to our paltry souls.
We understand.
As our souls
take on various aspects and forms
likewise does the doorway
to these hidden secrets and unhinged Ids
form their bond.
Her strong physical characteristic
setting aside her evil spirit
are her
devilish, multi-colored eyes
Everyman's craving.
Likewise, her breasts
pendulous and substantial
are gazed upon hungrily.
The same cannot be said, however
about her out-of-character
too cheerful, fire-engine red hair.
Cheerful, as opposed to the moodiness
surrounding the rest of the woman.
One beholds the curve of her waist
before it gently expands and
molds dutifully into exquisite, if sinister hips.
Holding this beautiful body
upright are pleasing-to-the-beholder's-eye
well-sculpted and devastatingly long
somehow out of place
legs.
The taper and curve
do not give off the same raw look of crudity
as do the rest of her.
This fog-cloaked body is beautiful
not by today's standards
not runway beautiful, no.
Hers is primitive; Eve to Adam.

Why has she come?
Now, when I have nothing left to give.


I stand up to my virtual hips
in these obfuscating surroundings
even in the best of times.
The density of the swamp
the ruthlessness of the quagmire's sinisterism
give my final thoughts to black, dreary hallucinations.
The bog where we face off
offers such primitiveness
even gators find better places to prowl
when nighttime uncovers secrets
the kind you don't want to know, within.
Surrounded by the boundaries of clinging moss
scummy, rancid bayou water
obscene gnarled trees
pointing their limbs at me; laughing.
It's painful to suck air into my lungs
but I dare not hold my breath
fearing the dead within me
will claim my contemptible, scabby, and gangrenous soul.

Just look at her.
She comes to wallow in gloat.


Somewhere
deep within the man
I fleetingly remember I was once
turn from this apparition
attempt the impossible
to leave.
Leaving, is a fantasy, ho, ho, ho
and can never be;
just as Lot's wife could not help herself
I turn back
for one more glimpse
at the nightmarish woman
who plied me with torment
torment which will never find peace
in this vile hellhole.
It's as though I turned back
for one last suckle on her teats
knowing full well her breasts are
malignant with pus and comes from The Beast.
Though she wears the fragile skin
of the lovely Helen of Troy
inside her inner, non-soul
lies the wicked and cunning Medea
spewing rites of damnation
as she did in Greek folklore.
My death has been a long and torturous one
culminating inside this insidious swamp.
I stare at my executioner
wanting to speak
understanding there is nothing left to say
that hasn't been said a million times over.
I want to call out her name.
I want to reach my hands toward her
I want to beseech her to . . .
There, then, is the conundrum.
There are no more chances.
I have no more sycophant entreaties
which fall on deaf ears.
I have no more sobs
trying to melt the pitiless space within her chest
where her heart is supposed to reside.
No matter which pathetic look I conjure up
her eyes will be blinded to them as they have in the past.
So I do nothing.
There is nothing to be done.
My death has been a long time coming
overrated and past due.
I've been in its clutches too many years.
Now I wait.
Sensing my capitulation
she presents me with a supercilious smile.
Alma, I whisper.

~ Eggs and bacon, honeymoon style / What's honeymoon style? / Straight up and hard. ~

© Copyright 2011 Jerry Pat Bolton - All Rights Reserved
Lori Grosser Rhoden
Member Patricius
since 2009-10-10
Posts 10202
Fair to middlin' of nowhere
1 posted 2011-07-21 11:57 AM


Well done Jerry! That was beautifully dark and haunting! Dirge indeed!
Lori

JerryPat2
Member Laureate
since 2011-02-06
Posts 16975
South Louisiana
2 posted 2011-07-21 12:20 PM


Thanks, Lori, I do tend to ease back into my dark poetical life don't I?

~ Eggs and bacon, honeymoon style / What's honeymoon style? / Straight up and hard. ~

Word Weaver
Member
since 2011-03-06
Posts 437
California, USA
3 posted 2011-07-21 01:12 PM


I'm sure glad I read this masterpiece in the daytime or I would have had a nightmare filled night, I still might. This is so well written it seems real. My goose bumps and I shall depart for now.


JerryPat2
Member Laureate
since 2011-02-06
Posts 16975
South Louisiana
4 posted 2011-07-21 01:55 PM


I'm happy you got here in the daytime too, Marcia. Hopefully by bedtime you'll have forgotten all about it. Of course the opposite may happen, be careful . . .

~ Eggs and bacon, honeymoon style / What's honeymoon style? / Straight up and hard. ~

Prasad Nataraj
Senior Member
since 2008-05-29
Posts 1149
Bangalore,India
5 posted 2011-07-21 08:38 PM


Fine writing Jerry, great imagery, the visuals are perfect for a gothic painting. Emotions are presented at the rawest form.

"The secret behind survival of mankind is kindness and love within our hearts"

JerryPat2
Member Laureate
since 2011-02-06
Posts 16975
South Louisiana
6 posted 2011-07-21 09:04 PM


Thank you so much, Prasad. Living down here in the Louisiana swamps I let the area's color influence my writing quite often. the voodoo influence you might say.

~ Eggs and bacon, honeymoon style / What's honeymoon style? / Straight up and hard. ~

ice
Member Elite
since 2003-05-17
Posts 3404
Pennsylvania
7 posted 2011-07-21 09:37 PM


I have loved swamps all my life, J.P., every since my daddy carried me on his shoulders, (when I was six) to check his trapline.
After  I got older, I had my on sets, and line...but I never saw anything like this woman on my rounds, and glad I didn't, because I would have tried to kiss her, and that would have caused my death..

Perfect, how you mixed Greek  myths in this..."Helen" is a good choice here, being the most beautiful woman in Greek mythology..and the cause of many deaths in the Trojan wars...now she has come to claim another, or maybe two..you, and me..stay out of the swamp JP..

enjoyed



JerryPat2
Member Laureate
since 2011-02-06
Posts 16975
South Louisiana
8 posted 2011-07-21 10:00 PM


I have been fascinated with the swamps as long as I have lived down here in them, Ice. I have let the folklore, i.e., Marie Laveau and the voodoo/hoodoo that thrives down here, and it has influenced my writing many times. In fact I'm thinking of writing a novel with a voodoo theme if I can ever finish the darn one I'm writing now.

Thanks for being here, Ice.

~ Eggs and bacon, honeymoon style / What's honeymoon style? / Straight up and hard. ~

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