Your cheek was pressed to the ground
as if listening for the heartbeat of the earth,
while the king’s soldiers took turns,
a dark wetness, and later, after they departed,
the spreading conviction that there was
a prince, ugly stepsisters, a glass slipper,
not just these medieval woods,
where, whenever you walk,
the weeping unicorn with the crumpled horn,
its throat slashed and bleeding,
offers its garish wound for you to kiss.
Howard Good, New York, USA
5 comments:
Howie Good, a journalism professor at the State University of New York at New
Paltz, is the author of three poetry chapbooks, Death of the Frog Prince
(2004) and Heartland (2007), both from FootHills Publishing, and Strangers &
Angels (2007) from Scintillating Publications. He was recently nominated for
the second time for a Pushcart Prize.
Painful & raw. Moving piece.
I have read this several times since it was posted, and still I can't tell to what purpose all of these disturbing images have been assembled.
As someone who collects fairy tale volumes, including alternative versions, I just find this disquieting.
Fireblossom, I did think carefully before posting this one and I think there is always a risk with disturbing work, that some people find the disquieting part to outweigh anything else.
I find this poem disturbing, but it remains a nice piece of work. Poems are supposed to move us, and this does. I enjoyed all the images from the first to the crumpled unicorn horn. I did find that the slashed throat and dripping blood at the end took away from the subtle picture of the poem. but that's the poet's choice. Good poem.
And I think Fireblossom recognises the quality in the writing, too, but is just disturbed by it.
Post a Comment