Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Getting back to what I came here for . . .

My original intent with this blog was to post an original poem once or twice a week. The idea was that I would be motivated to write poetry more often because I'd have a place to share what I've written. I'd like to try it out for a couple of weeks and see how it goes.

I'll start with a poem I wrote three (or so) years ago. It's based on a very vivid dream I had. (I sometimes dream in allegory). It's probably a bit of a diversion from my usual approach to poetry, but I kind of like it. Hope it doesn't make you sick. Hope you still think I'm sane. Hope you thought I was sane to begin with. Here is goes:

The Offering

The kitchen drawer paring knife
with the bent tip
pierces the skin between
the long thin foot bones above the
second and third toes.
not a clean, smooth scalpel drawn line of blood
but a jagged, meat-torn window
to where the bones are.

That’s what I’m after:
The bones.

I remove them, one by one,
from the right foot
and pile them,
clean and white,
like kindling
on a clean white plate
with a chipped rim
carefully placed on a clean white cloth
with one frayed edge
at the head of the dining room table.

Thin, delicate, unbroken.

I harvest the bones to the ankle.
I pause.
Why am I doing this? I ask myself.
And I can’t recall.
I just know it must be done.

The newly emptied fleshy flap of skin
sags at an awkward angle
from my right ankle
as it rests on my left knee.

Enough, I say.
And it is enough.

2 comments:

Tiffany said...

Oh, Shannon, I think I might just be your biggest fan! Your poetry is truly amazing and vivid and inspiring. I'm so glad you're going to write and post more. Sheesh. It's so good.

And now, I'm dying to know the details of your dream and how you interpret it. (And I still think you're sane.) :)

lizzie said...

so good!!! i can't wait for more!!!