Unconventional Longing

mincing garlic
i pressed memory
when fresh wind
assumed direction
blossom trees frozen
for next spring

yield

it was the house
past tearing spaces
pumpkin demons lured girls
into feel good naughty
turning them into groupies

they called only the best back

i became la femme au chapeau
not even wearing chanel no. 5
our bodies overlapping
stretched down in full length
jeans and socks touch disappearing trains

he wasn’t gentle anymore

the compression of his body weighing over
our two toned skin

no

he ate me with his eyes 
minuscule under his slow chill
his machete sliced in wholes
whispering in my ear
i love you

but whores can’t love

thinking that would do the trick
he continued holding me down
licking my ear lobe
and i 
would not discover my song
until ten years later mincing garlic
uncaged, undelivered
learning how to love again

stop

wobbled dip-side novice
position packed in
the cresendo vibrating in my panties
i closed my eyes and forgot
turning tables 
skipping rhythms 
dangled quiet melodies in time
 
 

Queen of The Mosquitos

it was a late funeral
i carried poems hidden
in breast pockets
from all those angry years
no one taught me how to live

dandies fly off dark ivy swallows
into pits
gloomy 
held captive 
on the shores of barbicide
bubbled 
curdled
putrid 

a river of madness

where i drain my blood
from a small incision
for the leeches
hurry come and get it, 
fast
run
smooth 
into the quick sands
withdraw-ling  my sickness
injected me with serum
to formulate attitude
under a bridge of armagadeon
bye-bye sweetness

there are thickly boarded houses
settled on puddled dew drops
that call me by name
and know the history
that I have stored
from even my husband

the icy rivers through me 
in red rock canyons
eaten by mosquitos 

i blow on raw-hide
rolled into a bamboo flute
And call
to the woman in me
lost in the wildness

i make home
and shake the hand of peace
knitting my sweater
i am a free woman

Copyright © 2002 Shaela Montague-Philips. All Rights Reserved. May not be re-printed in any form without express written consent of the author. Do not copy or post.