Huntress, After Baudelaire

Huntress by Michael R. Burch after Baudelaire Lynx-eyed, cat-like and cruel, you creep across a crevice dropping deep into a dark and doomed domain. Your claws are sheathed. You smile, insane. Rain falls upon your path, and pain pours down. Your paws are pierced. You pause and heed the oft-lamented laws which bid you not begin again till night returns. You wail like wind, the sighing of a soul for sin, and give up hunting for a heart. Till sunset falls again, depart, though hate and hunger urge you?"On!" Heed, hearts, your hope?the break of dawn. Invitation to the Voyage by Charles Baudelaire loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch My child, my sister, Consider the rapture Of living together! To love at our leisure Till the end of all pleasure, Then in climes so alike you, to die! The misty sunlight Of these hazy skies Charms my spirit: So mysterious Your treacherous eyes, Shining through tears. There, order and restraint redress Opulence, voluptuousness. Gleaming furniture Burnished by the years Would decorate our bedroom Where the rarest flowers Mingle their fragrances With vague scents of amber. The sumptuous ceilings, The limpid mirrors, The Oriental ornaments … Everything would speak To our secretive souls In their own indigenous language. There, order and restraint redress Opulence, voluptuousness. See, rocking on these channels: The sleepy vessels Whose vagabond dream Is to satisfy Your merest desire. They come from the ends of the world: These radiant suns Illuminating fields, Canals, the entire city, In hyacinth and gold. The world falls asleep In their warming light. There, order and restraint redress Opulence, voluptuousness. Originally published by Sonnetto Poesia NOTE: This poem is about the way primal lust for sex can turn human beings into animals who toy with their prey, like cats with mice. It is not about any person in particular.