Falling As Flying
When I met the devil's dancer
with his train of rainy knaves
too crazy for the kitchen,
too mean to put outside,
I had to choose to dance beside them
or die without the garden
in the riddle of their love.
They had a salve
they rubbed my skin with
to make a sudden stunning
of the secret self they sundered
from the untelevised quotidian
unknotted skein of childhood's yarn.
Their eyes were drug enough
at first; their skin became
my memory
burning through the now,
using all the oxygen
droning out the antiphone
disharmony of danger,
that intoxicant of the flesh.
And as the bella-
donna kicked my head
they did my favorite thing:
whisked the cloth from the crystal table
leaving everything intact, tossed me high
through a shrinking skylight
I never knew was there.
They called the falling flying
and I suppose it's as close to that
as any animal can come.
~June 2014
Process Note: "Atropa
belladonna or Atropa bella-donna,
commonly known as Belladonna or Deadly Nightshade, is a perennial
herbaceous plant... native to Europe, North Africa, and Western Asia. The
foliage and berries are extremely toxic, containing ..alkaloids. ...which cause
a bizarre delirium and hallucinations... In the past, witches were believed to
use a mixture of belladonna, opium poppy and other plants..
(such as monkshood and poison hemlock) in flying ointment, which they applied
to help them fly to gatherings with other witches." ~wikipedia
Challenge: Get Listed
Fireblossom(Shay's Word Garden) has leaped into the breach with a short but pithy word list, from which I have grabbed a few selections, combined them with one of my usual incomprehensible dreams, and totally gone off into the weeds. But, you can only use what you got, right?
Optional Faintly Related Musical Accompaniment
Image: detail from the Triumph of Death, by Pieter Bruegal the Elder circa 1532
