Sunday, 24 January 2021

Sonnet Sundays - Roses

So I was expecting my next entry to be Wednesday's Wellness Clinic, but oh no, my body had other plans (blame Mother Nature and all her gifts to womankind). Instead, here we are at Sonnet Sunday and I must admit, the same parts of my anatomy seem to have decided the tone of the poem I chose tonight too. 

I originally wrote this piece in June 2018 after going to a poetry reading during the final month of my stay in Plymouth. I'd met some strange characters in the Plymouth poetry scene but none as bizarre and affecting as one Spencer Shute. This poem was written for him (as an inaccurate description).

Roses

He reposes as he proses,

his words smell of roses,

yet the twang of his tone

is hard on the nose,

like the unfortunate rose

now starting to decompose.

He closes his eyes.

He sighs.

He reclines barefoot

now the toes begin to curl.

Content he owns the space

his tongue now unfurls.

He gesticulates

with every word he masticates

of dreams in which he fornicates,

and poses

for the scribbler who composes

and transposes

his image under the noses

of the speechless crowd.

On the page spawns a spider,

an inked-up outsider,

eyes closed but mouth wider

in dreams that he rides her.

He reaches and retches

fetches up on the ground

with a hideous sound

going around and around

into the silence.

 

Eyes unclose.

Time to recompose.

As he rose

they’re still silent.

A pressing down of the pants,

no chance

to redeem himself.

A little dance -

just a glance of the eyes,

but no surprise –

still silent.

The scribbler too is spent

his dribbling pen laid askance,

entranced by the event

that failed in its intent.

The problem here

what no one knows is

the poet as he proses

writes those decomposing roses

in a state which simultaneously deposes

the brain,

allows the heart and prick to reign,

leaving a stain on page and pants,

giving a new name to romance.

He closes his eyes.

He sighs.

Toes curl

Tongue unfurls.

Repeat. 

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