Mushroom of Gossip

She’s a storyteller,

a woman in white,

cage of black, spilling

my mad love into the ear

of the giver of stars.

A god, damning

me for the moments

at midnight, judging

my weakness by narrow

verse, she hangs me on

opinion’s tongue forgetting

I only grow stronger in affliction. 

Starlight tests the mushroom of gossip,

sifts through foul soil of its roots,

and finds the gaslight it feeds on.

A storyteller, who would be god,

discovers the shadow words

she hoped to crucify me with

are now the cage she must survive. 

©Susie Clevenger 2023

I was looking at my bookshelf, and found these five books stacked exactly as you see them. They are th inspiration for this poem. 

 

Slices of Rot

Licorice skin apples

hang from the tongue

waiting for gossip

to take its first bite.

Sisters of acid and brothers of blight

troll lips to see which are the most

susceptible to twist what is into what is not.

Night has its purpose…Light has its sin.

Truth has no rescue where lies learn to swim.

©Susie Clevenger 2020

The Sunday Muse #99

Spoiled Tongues Scar Faces

Judgmentals malign sister crow

with whispered gossip

jealous perked in spoiled tea.

She ignores their babble

polluting the wind, and gathers

silhouettes to wallpaper memory.

Spoiled tongues scar faces.

The eye of I is an open window

where what is spoken is always seen.

Beware when attacking a sister,

words carried on feathers

may return in a murder of wings.

©Susie Clevenger 2018

Real Toads ~ The Tuesday Platform

Crow image by pngtree.com