Arsenic Lobster poetry journal Issue Six 2004 |
BRINDIS * Gayle Elen Harvey (“Unlike domestic cattle, which, if wounded, run, the bull thrusts himself against the picador’s lance, ignoring pain, destroying himself.”) How unlike you, needing me so much you’ve laid bare both of us, invading my stunned neck with banderillas – My horns threaten every circular noon even as the gored reek of my brothers shames your lungs. I am deliberate. Revering our collective pain, I move toward your muletta without guilt or censure or love – Your sword opens me, sings through me like a red hive. I weep for you who face the sanguinary crowds alone, waiting momentary approbation, their abandonment. * first appeared in Greatest Hits |
About Gayle Elen Harvey |