Sentenced
He is sentenced to death
without a judge or jury
Displayed as entertainment
His black soul is about to be flayed
stripped and separated slowly.
The cool wind spreads his sweat.
It hums through the trees,
his final church chorus through nature.
The chains press him against the tree,
so he breathes with the bark
His veins red as the dirt
He feels the leaves in his phlegm
tastes the wood on his tongue.
His lips and fingertips swell like ripe fruit.
His lungs feel heavy,
he becomes one with the earth,
before sharing his blood with the soil.
Conflict of Interest
With the poise of an emancipated mind,
Her shoulders stand erect
Her internal scars are hidden
but she feels the the breath of her past
on the back of her neck
A past surrendered to civilian generality
void of unique personality
A blend of smeared paint
conflicted with the desire
to expose her inner masterpiece
Her life is filled with boundaries.
Handcuffed and limited to the expectations of others
yearning to display her potential,
her pride and power.
She turns her back to the past,
lifts her head
allowing her cheekbones and her chin
to represent her inner strength.
"Conflict of Interest" - The painting of the woman spoke clearly and quite loudly to me at the exhibition. I have to say, there are many similarities with my feelings and the feelings of the woman you've described. "Her life is filled with boundaries" - For me it's about embracing being a woman in all it's facets - mentally, sexually - opposing the public view of who a "good or respectable" woman should be, docile, covered, conservative, without a publicly acknowledged opinion.
ReplyDelete"Yearning to display her...pride and power" I have a frailty that sometimes I want to deny because I think it will compromise my strength. The thing is, I personally like to know that sometimes I can be protected, covered, by someone else who is "supposed" to be stronger than I am. And in the same breath, I feel sorry for men who in general, in the public's opinion, do not have that right to protection. I interpret, the pale respresentation of the woman in the painting is an expression of that frailty and a desire to be different, not necessarily regret because of a "shameful" past.
i think it could represent a shameful past becuase the pale respresentation of the woman has her head down, which is something people do when they are ashamed but i dont think they do that when they are frail.
ReplyDeletethe last two lines dont sit well with me i dont like how u refer back to the painting. Like my imagination was running with the poem so far then you brought it back to the painting again.
ReplyDelete