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Poems of Annie Blake (Part 1)

By
  • Annie Blake
 |  18 Dec 2018
Features Poetry
Die Sunde by Franz Von Stuck [CC, Wikicommons]

FELIX CULPA

for Annie Rose

i kiss her hand / i hold onto her reeds for she weaves me when the water falls / her body loosened by men / discernment and her sacrifice / she has taught me there is no such thing as loss / she unroots in the forest / thick incense on a white horse / the red horse and the blooded skins of indians / 3rd archon of the winds / she will reign for a thousand years / he won’t open his seals until she is able to come from his mouth /

blackbirds rise like a word from a hot hovel / satis house and her letter / and her first wedding gown / fires blank and face clocks / my hands / their spell / swelling the mouth of a match / the stone thrown into the sea and circulatio /

i see the devil in my room / my mother always told me he would come / my cross and the antichrist / one thief is the serpent / the other is the dove / as many feathers / tongues swollen with forgiveness / her lips / the afterbirth / parallel and larded like the tracks of carriages / sirens ring red / his hot colored eye / eupeptic syzygy / body from trees and / how i sunder for my people in clay

WE THAT ARE YOUNG SHALL NEVER SEE SO MUCH, NOR LIVE SO LONG

for my children

my cloche in the lake / waiting for him / with a feather and without a father / will the wind sail green / i’m on the pier on a summer’s day / i was in sweden / or switzerland / snow and summer make spring / a door i have never walked through / her body floating like a boat / she was a girl with a beautiful voice / and articulate / which was rare from where i came from / and how we read king lear in class / doll stuffing clouding the lake / the lining of cordelia and the rise of the third reich /

boats like funeral jackets / air like sails / i’m wearing a sailor blouse / kick-pleat skirt and ankle length / i’m not young anymore / theocracy / my god / bars across my window / my knuckles white / my face is strained wet / but more silent than when i was in childbirth / the skin of my body / tafetta or velvet and a coffin birth / my father hitting his head against the wall because that is the only way he can tell me he is frustrated and doesn’t know what else to do /

emendation / anacoluthon / shotgun window / where is the sky / burning lilies in the forest on the moon / there is a man there / i remember him from somewhere / he kicks a ball a long way off in the field / and gold and red sulphur to the sun / that is his answer to me / my children are handing in their ballot papers / i lay them like a map / on the table / the lake is green / a glass meadow / the boats serene / unleavened bread / how they are rising for me /

it was her that day / a mist of breath / single flaw of a feather / joseph of arimathea and the sabbath / i am a mother / he gives me another wedding ring / i fly through my shotgun house / my skin is all cut out / a basket made from a poplar tree / hickory lacing / for my son

SOTERIA

for Annie Rose

people are divisions / the shrinking wilderness / house lots / backyards / fenced and gated / so i’m viewable from the city / she sang and she dribbled / we kissed / danced ballet / because she was so infantile i carried her and helped her bend her legs /

my bedroom chair / i flew around in it for seven days / the wishing chair and circumambulation / nigredo and albedo / seven round planets / turned around / to show mourning and how the light is coming / the chair / shell motifs / curvaceous vase-shaped back splat / horseshoe seat / chairs have knees and cabriole legs / the dragon’s claw / the ball is stuck in my throat / a cat / guilt like loose string / i ate a mouse /

i want to wear the crown on my head / like osiris / his atef-crown / chairs can crumble like sucked bread / i penetrate things like men do / fly through glass / i stole her crown / she was a queen / eve and my mother / poison apple / redback / riding in the wood / chewable stone / virgin well / fountain of consequence and the cleaved sea / wings a cross / i followed her / until i touched her cloak /

the little girl asks / why doesn’t the ghost come / and when he came he was black / sheer voile curtains / mounts the dawn / i had just risen out of my bed / he sniffed my hands / holding a pomegranate and splitting seeds / and told me i was the devil / my mother was there / and told me to scrub myself clean /

our church was profound but the wind left me too separate / cloistered walnut shell and a sacrificial table / i struggle to lift my children from deep water / breathe them from the caves tucked high in their arms / when i can’t find air / their bodies dark water /

knees rise instead of mouths

Annie Blake

Annie Blake is an Australian writer and divergent thinker. She is a wife and mother of five children. She started school as an EAL student and was raised and, continues to live in a multicultural and industrial location in the West of Melbourne. Her re …

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Metapsychosis is a project of Cosmos Co‑op, a community dedicated to art, consciousness, and culture. We are building a home on the web, with local roots, where people of the Earth can band together to collaborate on creative projects, while contributing to the vision of an evolving planetary society. Visit our other projects: Untimely Books, Infinite Conversations, and Cosmos.Social.

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