Rochelle Owens: 'Hermaphropoetics' / 'Longing'

Sculpture by Eugen von  Bruenchenhein (1910-1983) as shown in Outsider Art exhib
Sculpture by Eugen von Bruenchenhein (1910-1983) as shown in Outsider Art exhibit at Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2013

In a dream

of a hermaphrodite

in silhouette

slender and elongated

 

a hermaphrodite

shimmering in scene after scene

 

staged and scripted

 

out of a lost narrative

discovered after the siege

 

longing thrown onto the body

an asymmetrical form

 

hyperfeminine hypermasculine

collecting and sorting

 

chicken bones turkey bones

exquisite the beaks and feet

 

organizing bones

 

lovely the pigeon bones

 

sculpted delicate

gothic cathedrals

 

shimmering in scene after scene

the shape of vertebrae

 

rising from a postapocalyptic pit

the waves of the Atlantic crash

 

the RUINSCAPE disappearing

 

then the LANDSCAPE yielding forth

 

dandelion yielding forth

lemon trees strawberry

 

hibiscus mango goose grass

pomegranate

leaves spreading undulating

 

secreting mucus nectar

amorous the greedy seed amorous

 

covetous the warring roots

murderous sex cells

 

hypermasculine hyperfeminine

hungry the fruiting bodies

 

swallowing the prey

the waves of the Atlantic crash

 

In a dream of a hermaphrodite

 

wanting to starve

wanting to devour heat and light

 

eating a scoop of sand

organizing skull wishbone femur

 

assembling structuring

gables spires parapets

 

lancet arches flying buttress

rib vaults

graceful the flowing tracery

 

a hermaphrodite

 

sculpting angels prophets kings

gargoyles saints

shimmering in scene after scene

 

the shape of vertebrae

rising from a postapocalyptic pit

 

[NOTE.  This is the fourth installment of Rochelle Owens’ ongoing work, Hermaphropoetics, to be presented on Poems and Poetics.  Of the series as a whole she writes: “Rare but real. Accidents of art and nature in which the senses entwine. Hermaphropoetics, a series of poems inspired by spores, fruiting bodies, rupture, comfort with the rottenness.  Metamorphoses, irregular sprouting of new neurological connections leads to the process of writing and living.  Poetic meanings that lay in wait underground.”  The proof of course is in the work itself.]