Sometimes I Miss the Old Jealous Goddesses
by Deb Scott
Your cold force
whistles through frothy
cracks and if I had one
one of those infrared-reading
gadgets all the seams
would glow
hot
like an enthusiastic
Hercules hiding his children
from fertile madness
Questions of fidelity
render fat
from stones raised
in a complicated family
no simple begats from began
blunt those elites
who wonder is it nurture
or nature shouldered between
strong thighs the size of earnest
temple columns Frozen deities
take the brunt of heredity
smudge the edges of this still life
A caesura reveals more about how
shadows cast
than progeny can set sundered limbs
Deb Scott lives in Portland, Oregon. She blogs at Stoney Moss and was one of the folks behind Read Write Poem. These days she and friends are ring-leaders at Big Tent Poetry, an online poetry prompt site. Deb’s poetry, prose and photography are published or forthcoming in a number of journals, including Ouroboros Review and tiny words. (A complete list is here.)
Brava, Deb. Love those earnest temple columns.
I really enjoyed reading this and then hearing you read it.
I think I remember reading this before…it stuck with me as I found so much to it that I love. Congrats!
I so love the way the title sets up this poem, and the strange, fierce, imagistic language of it: “cold force,” “Questions of fidelity render fat from stones” – knock-out stuff. Thanks so much for sending it, Deb.