Rochelle Owens: 'Hermaphropoetics' / 'Amorous,' for Clayton Eshleman

(hermaphrodite flower)
(hermaphrodite flower)

Unnatural

the opaque energy

tearing the cornea

the eyes

leaking blood

 

blood

of the hermaphrodite

carnal/spiritual

 

A boy with bright red lips

captured after the siege

 

her long pale eyelashes

 

teasing femme/homme

a warhol-like playfulness

her/his body

 

A girl warrior with pierced nipples

fickle he saunters by

 

teasing femme/homme

emerging from the mists the mists

of Cumae

 

an impure creation

 

Meek sweetness the face the face

of the hermaphrodite

his platinum blond curls

 

bringing millions to their knees

 

Her/His body

a warhol-like playfulness

 

horizontal/vertical

carnal/spiritual

 

inside a dark purple fruit

the core divi/ded

the physical poetic

 

a flow of hormonal forces

the mother misery the father terror

 

amorous the greedy seed amorous

 

A hibiscus blooming on the vine

a mango rotting

its core split/ting

 

amorous the greedy seed amorous

 

His/Her body

tasting of basil saltwater

the mother misery the father terror

a slit in the stalk

blood seeping

 

Playful the unborn babe

in its amniotic sac

 

green and pale the scrotal lily

 

mauve and pale the butterfly vulva

floating on silkscreen

 

sorcery of his female brain

Her/His body

horizontal/vertical

 

the dome of her skull

his fat ankles her perfect toes

his earlobes the angle of her nose

 

his long pale eyelashes

her breath blowing kisses

 

his mouth her tongue

vigilant the babe sucking

 

a fringe of milk blood drool

circles the nipple

 

teasing femme/homme

emerging from the mists the mists

of Cumae

 

Meek sweetness the face the face

of the hermaphrodite

his platinum blond curls

 

bringing millions to their knees

 

[NOTE. An additional installment from Owens’s Hermaphropoetics appeared earlier on Poems and Poetics, & further installments can be expected in the future.]