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Literature Text
Plates Before Breaking
I keep hearing the words you said
just before you left the room
They hang like plates before breaking
I cry because I cannot catch them
I shut my eyes, but I cannot sleep
there are images instead:
Bent near the water\'s edge
slanted Z of unkempt flesh, arm out-stretched
washing the doubt stained palm of my hand
Water ripples around me
gentle as articulation across the surface of your voice
Your soft face and the sweet skin of snakes
My hand closes beneath the stream
but there is nothing to hold onto
The water passes
unhindered by my hand
I wake to the weakness of dawn knowing
there is only the endless stretch of day before me
and my heels flat against the bed
afraid of falling back to sleep
I keep hearing the words you said
just before you left the room
They hang like plates before breaking
I cry because I cannot catch them
I shut my eyes, but I cannot sleep
there are images instead:
Bent near the water\'s edge
slanted Z of unkempt flesh, arm out-stretched
washing the doubt stained palm of my hand
Water ripples around me
gentle as articulation across the surface of your voice
Your soft face and the sweet skin of snakes
My hand closes beneath the stream
but there is nothing to hold onto
The water passes
unhindered by my hand
I wake to the weakness of dawn knowing
there is only the endless stretch of day before me
and my heels flat against the bed
afraid of falling back to sleep
Literature
Mayfly
-
When we were mayflies our wings were
worn from wire screens, but the tentative
beats of your belly chimed like iron.
And it occurred to me that through
the breeze of burning leaves our eyes
were open to wasps and weeds.
-
Literature
You Underneath
You
underneath,
brushing the willow,
swallow many branches, while
brushing the willow
underneath
you.
Silence,
they hear the
scratch, the bark
at the back of your throat.
Scratch the bark,
they hear the
silence.
You
underneath
brushing the willow,
silence!
They hear the
scratch, the bark
at the back of your throat;
scratch the bark
they hear the
silence,
brushing the willow
underneath
you.
Literature
ride on the underground
hunched creature rattling:
a snake in a rat-trap
shrieking like a banshee it
throbs along a thick tunnel
licks the curving walls away
sweating against them, eats
through gravel, wormlike—
skeleton bones howl and snap:
taca-ta-taca-ta-taca-ta
spitting through a dank fissure
clenched to ranks of tracks.
inside, hanging people shudder
swaying together, knocked
like stones in a tumbler;
old arthritic bones
cracking and twisting
a cold metal body.
Written last night. Inspired by Annie Lennox 'Why?'. That is all. You may resume your usual duties.
© 2003 - 2024 epimetheus
Comments5
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I love the title and that image. I love the first stanza.
"I cry because I cannot catch them"
bothers me...something in it feels cliche - it's the crying bit and not the catching bit. I'd like it better if you'd just say "I cannot catch them" Or almost anything other than the crying.
"there are images instead" is too passive...maybe something like "I see images instead" or something active...
"gentle as articulation across the surface of your voice" is beautiful...the whole image is nice
"sweet skin of snakes" also beautiful. The alliteration makes such a smooth sound that it feels absolutely natural and normal, but I would never expect "sweet" to proceed those words...wonderful.
I also love the last two lines. That might just be sympathy though...I recognize that feeling.
~amyFae~*~
"I cry because I cannot catch them"
bothers me...something in it feels cliche - it's the crying bit and not the catching bit. I'd like it better if you'd just say "I cannot catch them" Or almost anything other than the crying.
"there are images instead" is too passive...maybe something like "I see images instead" or something active...
"gentle as articulation across the surface of your voice" is beautiful...the whole image is nice
"sweet skin of snakes" also beautiful. The alliteration makes such a smooth sound that it feels absolutely natural and normal, but I would never expect "sweet" to proceed those words...wonderful.
I also love the last two lines. That might just be sympathy though...I recognize that feeling.
~amyFae~*~