Patterns of Animus
A new poem by Rochelle Owens
[For some years now, Rochelle Owens has been a regular contributor to Poems and Poetics and, before that, a key part of the poetry world which many of us have shared with her. Of the power of her work Marjorie Perloff has written: “brilliantly inventive, immensely learned, sophisticated, and witty in its conceits. She is, in many ways, a proto-language poet, her marked ellipses, syntactic oddities, and dense and clashing verbal surfaces. Hers is a universe of stark gesture, lightning flash, and judgment, a poetic microstructure in its superb modulations of rhythms and internal rhymes, its ironies and paradoxes. […] Owens’s lyric voice is unique among contemporary poets. An astonishing body of work.” For all of its ongoing changes (the symmetry of her strophes in the present instance), that assessment, I think, still holds true. (J.R.)]
Etched onto the metal plate zigzags
of black angles
vertical/horizontal
chasms and fissures
in the earth the engraver draws
a geometric form
fatal the design
when your eyes move
vibrating subatomic particles
split vertical/horizontal
spirals of colors pulsate
through the gaps
of your fingers circles of
burning silver
light into heat
earth yields dandelion
yields lemon trees biomorphic
geomorphic polymorphic
through the gaps
of your fingers
a glass of ice water sparkles
red violet the light
of early morning
*
The scenic order
tells the story of the noble
and ignoble
like the bone at the end
of your little finger
the distal phalanx tells the story
of your hand
like the tail and stinger
tells the story
of the scorpion long ago
an hour ago
‘
only a minute
through the gaps of
your fingers spirals of colors
pulsate red violet
the light of early morning
*
Molecular the skin’s mind moving
back and forth
*
In the swamp near
the palace a dead paysanne floats
a dead paysanne floats
in the swamp near the palace
in the drizzle and wind of
early morning moving back and
forth drifting in circles
microscopic algae
harmonious with mold
and fungus evoke the rhythm
of spontaneous change
the flesh of the apple
moving back and forth
front to back her bulbous tongue
and blood-packed eyes
her broken knuckles
blowing kisses along
the folds of her neck the burned
skin of her palms
the Universe contracts
e x p a n d s
on her inner thigh
a tattoo of a scorpion animal soul
spiritual hole carnal/spiritual
Behold Amadeus!
*
A jagged black line
zigzags chasms and fissures
in the earth
patterns of animus
vertical/horizontal
biomorphic geomorphic polymorphic
a flow of hormonal forces
the bacterial slime
amorous the greedy seed
mosquitoes amass rotate in circles
soaring hovering
moving back and forth
vertical/horizontal
a pale green lily emerges
from the swamp
long ago an hour ago
only a minute
*
Inside the kitchen
of the palace the smell of
fat suet tallow
meat on a grill
‘salt for the stew
salt for the butter’ sings my
good daughter
morning to evening
evening to morning
an unlit cigar in the butcher’s
mouth ‘shoot you
cut you stomp you too’
morning to evening
evening to morning no teeth
to bite no claws to maul
blood in blood out
*
In the swamp near
the palace a dead paysanne floats
a dead paysanne floats
in the swamp near the palace
in the drizzle and wind of
early morning the heavy blade
moves back and forth
hacks off bones
front to back vertical/
horizontal the heavy blade
moves back to front
hacks off diseased parts
moves back and forth
hacks off hard skin moves front
to back vertical/horizontal
hacks off tails heads
work is a binding
obligation a set of skills in
sequential order
‘shoot you cut you
stomp you too
no teeth to bite no claws to maul
salt for the stew
salt for the butter’
sings my good daughter
on the fat folds of her neck
dark marks of burns
between her thighs
the black rose
*
Inside the stable
in the zone diverging from
a course of events
past present future
the engraver draws
archetypal scenes staged
and scripted
out of a lost narrative
the mute eye witness
sees through the gaps of
your fingers
a kneeling figure
the feet enclosed
in sandals on the fat folds
of her neck
dark marks of burns
the mute eye witness sees
the contours of arms shoulders
through the gaps
of your fingers
moving back and forth
death strapped into riding boots
each successive image
splits vertical/horizontal
like subatomic particles
chasms and fissures in the earth
carnal/spiritual
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