Lightning Tree
When I was a child
pewterblue eyes round
as green walnuts, yellow pigtails
pulled tight in shredded rubber bands
I breathed up a world where I
lived in the storm, thunderheads panting like
mastiffs, tongues lolled over the lake, wind
secret as the monster under the bed
smiling, lightning fairy-dancing
into a forest
of wild branches;
I didn't blink for the peace of it
covering the screaming, the blows,
cleaning my face
of a toy's tears.
I breathed it in, petrichor
and the smell of power,
a brew of walking cobwebs
that piggy-backed me away,
a broken-eyed Dorothy doll
searching for Oz.
When I asked you to
kiss me like rain, you took me
up high on the lightning tree.
You had a web there, gunmetal strong
and sticky with grief. On the
edge of those sudden wires,
one foot already caught
you don't even know you're dead.
When you fight
to run with one eye blind,
and feel the tremble
coming closer
you learn everything
you lost
all
you never had
and that you
can never trust
a storm.
~July 2021
posted for Fireblossom
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Images: Lightning in West Texas © Ryan Smith Photography Fair Use
Broken doll, via Sunday Muse Fair Use
This is as wide as a plains sky and as dangerous and seductive as a devil's kiss. I especially like the stanza beginning with asking to be kissed like rain. The whole description of what follows is--forgive me--electric poetry indeed, especially being built, as it is, upon the forlorn loneliness of the opening lines. I think that, in a way, we have written about the same thing. This is amazing work, dear friend.
ReplyDeleteI love everything about this gorgeous poem Joy! From the conjuring of a child's imagination to the tremble and realization of what is and is not. I may not have written of this, but in some ways I feel I can relate to it deeply. I was raised in North Texas, and the storms were terrifying sometimes. I always found myself having nightmares about them.
ReplyDeleteSuch vibrant imagery and emotion-charged context and rueful conclusion.
ReplyDeleteAmazing, beautiful, difficult. This is top-drawer great poetry: "When I asked you to / kiss me like rain, you took me / up high on the lightning tree. / You had a web there, gunmetal / strong /and sticky with grief." Take a bow.
ReplyDeleteAnd the last stanza is phenomenal. (So to speak!)
ReplyDeleteHoly moley.....you leave me speechless, girl. Gorgeous.
ReplyDeleteYes indeed, the thoughts of a child runs deep in the marrow of fear loneliness and rebuke
ReplyDeleteHappy Sunday
much❤love
What a powerful poem, Joy! Exquisitely brilliant! I could related to many of those emotions.
ReplyDeleteI cannot say enough about this powerfully stirring poem except Bravo!
ReplyDeleteThis is really beautiful, Joy. The description of the storm as mastiff lapping at the lake is brilliant. And who wouldn't want to be kissed in a lightning tree?
ReplyDeleteNo way could I have read this poem without crying. No way. The image is stunning, your poetry speaks loudly to the Lightning Tree and to Sad Dorothy Doll.
ReplyDeleteOh, I don't know what to say. I feel each line is a lightening strike, bright flashes exposing darkness. Oh, if I only had an ounce of your talent...sigh
ReplyDeleteSo strong, so huge, so wonderfully written— wow, excellent!
ReplyDeleteThis leaves me breathless.
ReplyDeleteYou've been charging that capacitor, and unleash the charge here. I won't quote back the entire pen, but will return to read and re-read, for your words say it better than mine ever could. You have tapped into power, as though Freya remembering. ~
ReplyDeletebeautifully written Joy, such a sad feeling, to me this poem is suggestive of a brutal event, and a rage that followed, a rage that gets us thru the pain, doesn't heal us, just gets us thru. i really liked these lines:
ReplyDeleteI breathed it in, petrichor
and the smell of power,
a brew of walking cobwebs
that piggy-backed me away,
a broken-eyed Dorothy doll
searching for Oz.