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The Royal Boy (Negative Imagery)
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The Royal Boy (Negative Imagery) |
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Child of the Stars
since 2000-09-07
Posts 1658Ann Arbor, MI 
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The Royal Boy We were none of us queens with scepters stamped out by our sides, caving to falling glass embraces wrapped as deities in grapes and leaves, rubies at our breasts, heads up, shoulders back, right foot set to step and our fingers on the napes of our necks. We were baby girls with hungry eyes huddled knees-to-belly our bony thighs on chairs built for our fathers. You were no royal boy sent from your father to deliver us with a touch and a glance and a smile hailing our names in paper fields, just a soft man with a wife in the backroom. She might have rinsed your plates after watermelon (I felt the seeds in your teeth when you kissed me) or roasted potatoes (I caught a slice of skin in your throat) Did she kiss you after dinner and did you kiss your children before sending us to bed? |
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| © Copyright 2006 Carly Anne Van Dort - All Rights Reserved | |||
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deasomnians Member
since 2006-06-20
Posts 87California |
Very nice! I love the imagery. |
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Brian James Member
since 2005-06-26
Posts 147Winnipeg |
I think this is perfectly what I was getting at, though I shouldn't expect any less from you. After the first line, which is the sole refutation of what's to come, you give a very concrete and solid image that is powerfully ornate. Other than that, this is still a really beautiful poem. The ambiguity when you say things like "to deliver us," and especially the ending, is masterfully mysterious. I may not have read this carefully enough the first time that I did, because I really, really love it and wouldn't change a thing about it. "To me, the thing that art does for life is to clean it, to strip it to form." |
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