AFTER, THE GOD
Enter a young girl, neck
arched against black loam.
History moves in quick strokes,
in light-bending pools.
Deneb in the Cross falls down
upon the beating wings. Rapid
breath leaps at animal stroke and shudder.
A village sleeps, only orphan dogs
hear the scaled note, high then descending.
Tear of cotton, thin scent of fennel
in the bruised swale.
--S.K.
Hmm, I'll have to think about this one. It's intriguingly open to interpretation.
ReplyDeleteHint: Leda and the swan.
ReplyDeleteI was reading a lot of W.B. Yeats when I wrote this one.
Apologies to him.
Deneb is a star in constellation Cygnus.
Cygnus = swan
But it can mean whatever you want it to mean.
Oh, I forgot, the Cygnus constellation in which Deneb is found, is in the Northern Cross
ReplyDelete____________ Nameless ____________
ReplyDeleteI waited and kept trying, but I never
Achieved the thing I’d hoped I might achieve.
My standards kept me frustrated –– forever
Stymied –– so I can’t myself deceive ––
Or foolishly encourage vain ambition ––
Deny innate inferiority ––
Elude the ghastly clutches of Perdition ––
Professing Greatness is in store for me.
Realizing one has limitations
Exfoliates, denudes, and bares the soul.
Stopping all pretentious imitations
Strips us of the hope our life’s been whole.
Elation, when derived from mere illusion,
Denies fulfillment –– amplifies contusion.
~ FreeThinke
Oh, I forgot, the Cygnus constellation in which Deneb is found, is in the Northern Cross
ReplyDeleteRight next to Lyra and my star. Thanks for the hints -- I think I get it now.
You might have called your poem Reaching for the Stars. ;-)
ReplyDelete