The
Tender Transformation
My
little talisman,
my sun
god,
offered
to me,
rosy
and wailing.
transforming
my acuity,
cataclysm
of truth,
revealing
my courage in this brittle state.
You
wielded the mirror,
my
vision bulbous,
labour
bringing me in,
I
grazed the grim reaper with my brass neck.
In that
moment under the harsh florescence,
the
room stood aglow.
I dove
into the Heavens through my womb,
grasping
my talisman,
my
molecules in another form,
yielding
wonders,
keeping
my life.
The
Virtue of Bathsheba
May I
return to soft ringlets,
gilded,
the air
stroke my cheek as the mare raced the fields.
Before
the grey,
the
mundane day after scathing day,
when
the hour stretched,
supple
complexion of adolescence free from the scorched sun,
an
innocent force shielded from sarcasm and humiliation.
Let me
retreat beneath the umber horizon,
where
the magician’s hand has yet to disclose the deception,
guarding
myself in the beauty of naïveté,
where
hope’s chord has yet to fray.
The Mourning of Fille
Oh!
Daddy!
There
are monsters,
whispering
beneath my bed,
darkening
a grieving cerebellum.
They
lounge in wait,
beneath
dark canopies.
Xanax
and Fentanyl fail to remove the stain.
You
abandoned me,
a
barren time.
The
longing expands.
Daddy,
the
monsters are mine.
They
dine on a throbbing aorta.
Shall I
be ready?
Lead
the calvary!
March
with me across the wheat-grass fields.
Check
beneath my bed.
Daddy,
read my
epitaph.
I peer upon the cyan door.
Jessica Weyer Bentley is an
author, poet, and photographer. Her first collection of poetry, Crimson
Sunshine, was published in May 2020 by AlyBlue Media. Her chapbook, Down Below
Where the Canary Sings, was published May 2, 2023 by Sage Owl Publishing in
Massachusetts. She has contributed work to several publications for the
Award-Winning Book Series, Grief Diaries, including Poetry and Prose, and Hit
by a Drunk Driver. Jessica’s work has been anthologized in Women Speak Vol. 6
(Sheila-Na-Gig Editions), Summer Gallery of Shoes (Highland Park Poetry),
Common Threads 2020 and 2022 Editions (Ohio Poetry Association), Pegasus 2022
Journal (Kentucky State Poetry Society) Appalachian Witness Volume 24 and
Appalachian Unmasked Volume 25 (Pine Mountain Sand and Gravel) and Made and
Dream (Of Rust and Glass) 2021 and 2022. She has been published in several
publications by Alien Buddha Press including anthologies and magazines. She has
contributed work to online blogs including Global Poemic, Lotherian Journal,
Dead Mule School of Southern Literature and was a Wolfpack contributor for the
online journal, Fevers of the Mind. Jessica currently resides in Northwest
Ohio.
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