POETRY


Me in Paradise by Brenda Shaughnessy      








I'm Perfect At Feelings




so I have no problem telling you

why you cried over the third lost

metal or the mousetrap. I knew

that orgasms weren't your fault

and that feeling of keeping solid

in yourself but wanting an ecstatic

black hole was just bad beauty.



Certain loves were perfect

in the daytime and had every

right to express carnally behind

the copy machine and there are

no hard feelings for the boozy

sodomy and sorry XX daisy chain,

whenever it felt right for you.



And when the moment of soft

levitation with erasing hands

made you feel dirty, like

the main person to think up love

in the first place, I knew that.

It's okay, you're an innocent

with the brilliance of an animal



stuffing yourself sick on a kill.

Don't, don't feel like the runt alien

on my ship: I get you. I know

the dimensions of your wishing

and losing and don't think you

a glutton with petty beefs. But

even I, who know your triggers,



your emblematic sacs of sad fury,

I understand why the farthest fat trees

sliver down with your disappointment

and why the big sense of the world,

wrong before you, shrugs but

somewhere grasps your spinning,

stunning, alone. But you have me.




     

  






©2000
Brenda Shaughnessy and Nerve.com   





Commentarium (8 Comments)

Jul 25 00 - 10:19am
twm

Her verse felt three-dimensional. I could run with it. I could be or feel possessed by it. It came alive as poetry. There was definitely that aspect to it.

Jul 25 00 - 11:40pm
jhm

I read her first book. didn't know she changed style so much. these poems have more daring, more confidence than those. Three dimensional? I don't know about that. Seems like personal addresses to me, and we get to see the correspondence but it's not "to" us. Haven't seen any new poems from Shaughnessy in a while. Good to see some here.

Jul 25 00 - 5:17pm
PMM

That was beautiful. I liked the flow. I liked the arousal I got from reading it.

Jul 25 00 - 8:41pm
aes

That's an awesome poem, I been there!! Thanks to the writer

Jul 25 00 - 10:01pm

the best yet, or better still.

Jul 27 00 - 2:34pm
LB

The rythm that burns out in such loud silence has seeped into this head.

Aug 03 00 - 9:32am
pa

overwritten, selfindulgent

Mar 25 01 - 7:30am
CS

Coach I don't get it !! & I'am glad you were unable to see the newlyweds it was freaky & kinky !
I'll still be able to look you in the eye Monday. I'am going to read it one more time. see ya

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