I stared into a dragon’s eye
She focused clear and looked right back
Without a blink, with sulfur stink
Our pupils met and mingled black
We rose and fell both with our breathing
Each jailed beast sizing up the other
Accept the kill, or risk, stay still
Annihilation left to hover
Let gray the scales we’ve tended
Our visceral fires feed but fade
Best not to think, too soon extinct
Two myths together leave the stage
– a.r.
Digital art: Dragon Eye by Aijoku on DeviantART
For my daughter…
I am not a pretty penny
I am the train that runs it flat
I am not a purchased plaything
I am the bored and brutal cat
I am not a novel notch
I am the knife that nicks the post
I am not waiting to be asked
I am the uninviting host
I am not a bawdy bauble
I am the key that locks the case
I am not a pleasant picture
I am the scar that mars the face
I am not “just an” anything
I am as complex as I choose
I am not the flash and sparkle
I am the lit and hissing fuse
-a.r.
Posted because someone I trust told me this was one of their favorite drafts that I had waiting in the wings.
I don’t mind keeping
My seasonal messes
Right there
On the front porch
For everyone’s peeping
While I try to make
Neat piles from chaos
Because I know
Eventually I will create
A narrow pathway
For clearing and carrying
This cyclical stuff
Piece by piece until
The piles are put away
Imperfectly but in their place
Leaving my living space
Open and available
For the next season
And all its new messes
-a.r.
Instability in the air
So I take pictures
Of my precious things
In order to properly
Put them back into place
After these winter winds
Scatter me everywhere
-a.r.
Photograph: Storm is Coming, artist unknown
Found here: http://lastdaysofmagic.tumblr.com/post/13318042317/storm-is-coming
I like my skin snug
Pulled concave with its curving
Causing slight concern
-a.r.
Photograph: Slinka By Sarah Thompson
You are an adult
And are therefore empowered rightfully
As you see fit, even aggressively, to explore your own sexuality
It is my job, and mine alone
To educate my daughter towards her own
Power and control, the right to say yes as equally as no
Perhaps you should feel some retreat
From someone else teaching children about sexuality
Not fear of the pop-star or TV, but of the quiet predator down the street
Our priorities are so fucked up
When we fear our own sex oh so much
That we scream louder at other women, than we do at this misogynist system
But how we all stay so shut up
About sex crimes committed, even against us
Where are we putting our power, in someone else’s thrust, No I will not hush
I will not be afraid of sex and talking honestly
Just because a pedophile once had control of me
I will love the skin I live in and explore it on my own terms, brave and free
My voice, my body, my sex, my right, my pleasure
If I can instill one thing in my daughter may it be to treasure
All of those things in herself equally, because she too was born an autonomous SHE
-a.r.
La Belle Dame sans Merci by Frank Cadogan Cowper
On Mischief Night I
Embody Lizzie Borden
Bad parents Beware
-a.r.
Artwork: Lizzie Borden by Krista Huot
HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE
A leafless tree bears
Down on me in monochrome
There is my tombstone
The feel of hip bones
Pressing cool on porcelain
There is life again
-a.r.
Photograph by Siripiri on Tumblr
Last night
My lover made a claim, wanting 100% of me
Of loyalty and of belief, I will not let this be
I reject this, my body cannot digest this
100% of anything is a lie, unless we speak of when you die
All of me is not up for grabs, not even on the table
I alone will save this painted face if I am able
There is at least one card you cannot see
So close that I have sewn it directly into me
Mine, this fleshy vest, you may have the rest
But this Dame, she’s mine to play, one day
I will reach, with my own hand, into my beating heart
I will rip these seams apart, and I will throw her down
This Queen, and claim her crown
She and I alone decide how much of me
To hold, to play, to bluff, discard, or hide
Or perhaps if you are lucky
To let it ride
-a.r.
Painting: Judith II The Queen of Hearts by Karen M.
sometimesihatemycat 