2 poems

The Raven: A retelling

 

Futon couch, coffee stains

The Artic Monkeys

Baby, I just wanna be yours

Baby, I only want to belong to you, and breathe in you, and love you and only you

Decaying walls, magenta curtains

And my lips taste like cigarettes, my lips taste like love and death and obsession

My lips taste like you, and the way I kissed the base of your throat ever – so gently

The raven enters, and takes me away, and away

It’s a harbinger of tragedy;

You’ll never be mine, and I must let you go

And I must let you go, my pretty darling, my glorious night

My blue moon, every wishing wall by midnight 

They’ll call me a foolish devotee, another tormented woman;

For I love you too much, 

And so I’ll stay, and pray for you by the light of the moon.

​

Phoenix

Her rotten corpse; tossed aside

Look, how pretty she looks, how darling-

With her tiny nose and pearly white teeth

Isn’t she the most glorious monster you’ve ever seen?

And they say, she’ll make you plead for mercy

She’ll scream her silence, and worship that which doesn’t exist

And you’ll be seduced, drawn in by her haunting glory

By the blue orchids braided into her hair, by the sweet scent of ruination

With the pale white veil over her face, and the bony hands-

There she goes, the mad woman, the dead woman

The dangerous one, the dangerous one

For she refuses to submit to the world of the living dead

For she rises, again and again.