Hourglass

Her skin is the sand
            tan and free running
She curls her body around purple mountains,
holding them to her breasts
Her breath, the icy air moving between leaves

Her hair, muddy brown blue
            beckoning in its movement
Gilded liquid fingers,
tickling sucking toes

There is dawn in her hair
            and sunset in her eyes
Orange, pink, yellow twilight ribbons, flecks of liquid turquoise

Bits of starlight
            glazing the sand
            in the crooks of her elbows,
            behind her knees
Piercing, bedazzled loops and stones

She lies, a contented desert cat
Her paws, the rocks
Her nails, the cactus

Her backbone
            the ridges of roughened roads,
            tire track memory and deep arroyos

Her monsoon tears wash away summer heat,
            crackling heat,
            dry lip sucking heat

She shifts her hips to make room for winter,
snow collecting on the mountains held to her chest

With her sigh,
            a rush of spring
            and a stretch awake

She is death, this desert woman

Her figure, the hourglass
Her skin forever shifting in time

When she kisses you goodbye
sandpaper swift
            she leaves you uncovered
            bone white and raw
but more true for having loved her

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Confession (or A Ways from Caramel Apples)

I must confess, I used to be anorexic. I figured now would be a good time to just lay that out on the table. Being a hiccup away from 25 is bringing a lot of things to light. I've never shared this in such an open way, but today seems like a good day. Between the age of 13 and 14 I barely ate anything at all and exercised sometimes over 6 hours a day. Unfortunately, this unprecedented surge of "self control" and "dedication" was met with more praise than alarm. I am the perfect storm of components that make up a person who develops this disorder. Some of those components are dark and personal; I won't be sharing those here. However, I did want to talk about expanding. Ironic, eh? Someone who once dedicated herself so completely to disappearing now wants to discuss actually taking up space in the universe. Lately, I've been desperate to feel some growth- legitimately growing up, with all the attendant responsibilities and heartaches thereto. My poem Ra...
Read more

ChocolateSushiCouture- Photo shoot, Spring 2009

Image
I never thought that on a rainy spring day I would be in a studio in downtown Chicago with a cute little assistant shyly rubbing bronzer into my legs. He was so shy, in fact, that he couldn't continue up to my thighs. (A fact made obvious later when my skirt hiked up and the skin was pale enough to blind Helen Keller.) Nor did I think that I'd have an exuberant stylist (see below) with his hands up said skirt, and down my shirt as well. ("Don't worry honey, this means nothing to me.") Ah, it's a good life I discovered just a scant few months ago. My friend, plus-size model Teslyn Butler , who I met at a commercial shoot, recommended me to a local designer named Niehla Ollie who was in dire straights for a Caucasian, curvy model. After sending a few snapshots through email, Niehla agreed to use me for a small photo shoot. I was folded into an enthusiastic embrace in her apartment and immediately put into make-up while I learned the basic ins-and-outs of plus...
Read more

Phoenix Song

the story of the phoenix doesn't mean much when it's told over and over again but no one stops to plan it means you gotta die no roll of the dye you have to choose to die in order to live again we keep talking of ashes and flames but it's just games until someone grabs the torch and makes the choice to expeditiously expand their own demise in order to move beyond simply surviving the story of the phoenix is bloody and lonely the song of the phoenix is melancholy and wondrous but we speak so easily of such things as if putting your Self on the altar is no mean feat no force no remorse your choice your voice screeches higher as flesh and blood sizzle away in self made fire cracked tears and dried lips praying you weren't wrong praying you'll wake up on the other side on the inside when the song of the phoenix cries better say goodbye 'cause swim or burn sink or fly either way you're gonna die
Read more