call me pandora
i was greedy
and curious and wilful
i wanted it all
i opened that box
out flew lies out flew death
out flew everything
no one in their right mind would want
now i sit
in the autumn of my life
clutching that box
that holds my birthstone
and only my birthstone
an amethystine shimmer
that is my only treasure
i cling to life
on a slender thread
called hope
as a sapless leaf
catches on to a spiderweb
to avoid falling
to its death
The Virtual Wife
If pixels on a screen were pen on paper,
if words sent through the ether
were mailed in a letter,
I’d be a paper wife.
I am distant, convenient and much too readily available.
I make few demands, and those I put forth,
while often promised fulfilment,
are always and inevitably ignored.
I don’t want to be the spinster Belle of Amherst,
writing, always writing to her Master.
I’m sick of being a crutch left in the corner
‘til another ankle’s twisted.
But I remain – not even fashioned, as was Blodeuwedd,
from the fragile beauty of flowers – only paper.
No, there is no more pen to paper.
I am pixels.
Disembodied, voiceless, remote,
I am the phantom on the periphery
of the plateau of reality.
I am Everyman’s dream – the virtual wife.
cliché-verre
i reinvent myself every day,
rearranging my molecules
to suit the season.
the weather.
my mood.
a portrait on glass
that when exposed to light
becomes the me of the moment.
it’s a time-consuming process –
not always completely accurate,
but i don’t worry about that.
we all project what we carry
onto what we see anyway.
i don’t save these multiple mes.
no matter the time, just before sleep
i burn the latest me with no regrets,
knowing some version or another
will always be there
waiting to be reinterpreted
on a fresh plate.
before i discovered cliché-verre
there were days couldn’t rise
under the weight of a slagheap
of the coal ash of sorrow
heaved up from history
and hardened into an everest of grief.
this ritual reinvention is what
keeps me breathing.
to rise and live as much as i'm able
until the next ritual burning
of the me created for just that day.
NB: cliché-verre
also known as the glass print technique, is a type of "semiphotographic" printmaking. An image is created by various means on a transparent surface, such as glass, thin paper or film, and then placed on light sensitive paper in a photographic darkroom, before exposing it to light. This acts as a photographic negative, with the parts of the image allowing light through printing on the paper.
You always blow me away! Thank you! 😊
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