Fool's Fruit

Proserpine ~ Dante Gabriel Rossetti 

A fool bears the fruit of a heart

sacrificed to the arms of stone.

Promised love I endure his eyes gorging

on the pale skin of another woman’s blush.

Pruned to be a silent rose, I am a wraith

cast out to roam a smothered wail

where nothing grows but sorrow and anger’s thistle.

But my lips reject the dirge humming in my throat.

Must my spirit die in the hope of resurrection?

It was not my mirror that failed his eyes, but his

that hungered for youth he could no longer conquer.

For now, I dress in midnight’s sapphire, a shadow

formed from the dark side of the moon.

When night frees me to roam sunlight’s match,

I will dance on flames that burn him from my dreams.

 ©Susie Clevenger 2020

Inspired by Dante Gabriel Rossetti's painting and his sister, 

Christina Georgina Rossetti's poem, After Death

The video is the new release from my friend Samantha Fish.

Poets and Storytellers United - Weekly Scribblings #20

Dancing on a Flame

Passion dances on a match strike,

the burn so enticing, no whisper of a scar.

*

Love creates both fools and demons

when bed sheets are its only warmth.

 *

Almost is an eternity when the heart

builds a nest from blindness.

 *

Lust is a summer fruit that withers

when winter's chill snuffs its flame.

©Susie Clevenger 2020

I wrote it as a single poem, but then realized each line could stand alone.

#napowrimo2020 Day 29

Inspired by: #skyloverwordlist - match -

Real Toads - April 2020 - Day 29

I Won't Choose Empty

I can’t swim in another’s baptism

or walk the path of a constrictive

definition of un(conditional) love.

Love can’t be commanded to leave,

or be erased when it consumes the soul.

...I won’t choose empty...

There is no light in a sacrifice that

denies the heart’s own revelation.

I no longer wish to live in a prison

built to keep me from my truth,

or whither to appease another’s blindness.

©Susie Clevenger 2018

Real Toads ~ Revelation

Agony of the Moon

Howling moonlight walks the horizon

searching for souls of brave poets

to feed the monochrome night

love is both torture and

ecstatic freedom,

a heart walk through

the how and

why of

war.

©Susie Clevenger 2018

Real Toads ~ Fussy Little Forms ~ Nonet

messenger

rain threatens the sky

and i wonder how

long the moon can swim

before it drowns in the

love sonnets pooling

on my lips

alone sits on a windowsill

begging a warm hand

to break the chill…

i fold a verse conjured

from dead poets into

his palm and whisper,

“love stays when you

give it away”

i melt into the shadow of echoes…

there’s no rest in a city of open wounds

©susie clevenger

Real Toads ~ On the Edge of a Starry Night