Art

All posts in the Art category

Mining On The Moon

Published December 4, 2013 by rlmcdermott

On fire in
the afternoon,
a woman
in a shroud
is cleaning
her own skull
of its flesh;
she has
dug herself
up and is
burning in
the bright
daylight.

Polished bone
is mirroring
back what is
left of her face.
Holes are
everywhere–
eyes,
ears,
mouth–
no one has
heard her voice
for years.

Buried,
disinterred
and buried
again;
now, she
can speak
of return–
silence,
smoke,
intimidation,
incineration,
tapping bone,
bird song,
hard stone,
conflagration–
and of the
day he came
carring a
small lyre.Eurydice

Le Jardin

Published November 21, 2013 by rlmcdermott

the place was set
but no one came

she waited for an hour
and then she ate
pistachio and pumpkin
chestnuts and white truffles

outside the rain

the waitress was kind
and left her to her pain

the other diners
pretended she
was not alone
and smiled at
the lonely woman
sitting by herself

French restaurants in fall

the opera crowd
with season tickets

the sommelier

the taste of taro on her tongue

the bitter root of love denied

coffee and a sweet dessert

she paid the price

outside the rainLe Jardin

Bird Girl

Published November 8, 2013 by rlmcdermott

they picked me
up and put me
down and told
me I’d be found

the light ahead
was not for me

the sky the moon the stars
they could not see
that I was standing still

I ran and ran and ran in place
to chase them down–these
things I dreamed were
dreamed for someone else

the bitter fruit
the barren tree
the songless bird
were all for me

I wore them well
these dark things
around my neck
until I couldn’t breathe

I will not stay
to see them leave
who reads these
poems cannot
know me I
didn’t bury birds
they buried me

Bird Girl