Sunday, March 9, 2014

Juliana Leslie / Three Poems


Three Poems 
by Juliana Leslie


PALIMPSEST

Everything inside of everything else
fox and sparrow
crocus and plumage
you make hibiscus
who is also rose of Sharon
though you are nothing compared to chrysanthemum
who travels 5,000 miles and then some
“For you”
“I have never felt so alive”


SOFTER MORE RADIANT SIGNAL

                              Tell me more about
                              crayons, contingency
                              and winter fruit
                              polyamorous structural
                              locations
                              we know aren’t always the best
                              for human hands anyway
                              Tell me she is all worn out
                              from work
                              and thinking
                              the ghostly opposite
                              or optimistic messenger
                              a perpetual shoe shine
                              or softer
                              more brilliant
                              orange
                              I embrace
                              wherein love lies
                              like a human anatomy lesson
                              More palpable and more
                              more
                              Tell me we need
                              more rigor
                              more strings,
                              more
                              disclosure,
                              more collapsed lungs,
                              crooked teeth, broken
                              capillaries, tell me we need more
                              of what happens to bodies when bodies decide
                              to say what they want more of
                              More love in the vernacular
                              for example
                              More words like
                              longing, appetite, hunger
                              more bodies to willfully embrace
                              in summer kitchens
                              Tell me you want more sublimation
                              of history
                              by palpable whim
                              and fancy
                              More French in brunette
                              more four inside five
                              more singular features to render
                              clean of muscle, more
                              muscle
                              More of that feeling
                              that accompanies an unsettled
                              state of being
                              More of the condition of being
                              naturally disposed to several
                              different feelings
                              and tell me more about these words
                              turbulent, euphoria, indiscreet


                THERE IS MANIFEST AMONG US A DESIRE

                              If such a thought were in me
                              to provide movement at the level of writing
                              I would ride this train all over California
                              I would
                              and I would hum
                              I would sleep in both


CONJUNCTIONS:48, Spring 2007
http://www.conjunctions.com/preview.htm



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