Arsenic Lobster poetry journal        Issue Six   2004
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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

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