They say “gentle” before “man”
as if softness must be stapled
to power to make it palatable.
As if the fist, once gloved, is no longer a fist.
They say “strong” before “woman”
as if endurance must be embroidered
onto flesh to make it forgivable.
As if the cleft, once crowned, is no longer a cleft.
Adjectives are corsets-
the ligature of language,
cinching identity until it fits,
the silhouette of acceptability.
A strangulation ritual
masquerading as grammar.
Let the noun speak- naked.
Money
A single metal penny or a piece of paper
I am countable with infinite power
I am ambiguous whether I can buy happiness
I can buy everything that makes one’s comfort
A share of mine can ease the house chores
A piece of mine can buy the joy of a toddler
A bit of mine can buy a rose for a lover
A part of mine can help to fly and dive
I disclose truth of people when I leave your side
With me you are powerful otherwise you’re fragile
I have many forms of luxury
that can make someone smile
Who says I can’t buy happiness
I am a moderator to buy forms of joy
Instead I can’t buy love with sorts of attitude of my possessor
I am that which you want to keep safe
I am the breaker and also ligature
That makes your friends and foes
I am a blessing to the poor
I can fill the palate of a hunger
I can smack a nation into dust
I can cover a body with cloth
With me you can get all articles
Without me you are nonentity in the world.
The disgusting side of Jack's nature
Is his bearing of Doctor's stature
A will to give medical lecture
The Doctors robe drape in bold picture...
Feel Jack would his feet for temperature,
A long bleeding stop with ligature,
An open wound evenly suture;
One's health in medical terms capture...
Jack's hands watch for feverish coldness,
When they start trembling more boldness
Something his doctor friends resent,
For patients don't without their consent...
This point they all shall to Jack present,
His wife present, her mind not absent.
"Thrice Jack's palm on his heart for the beat"
The medic who saw it felt heat:
"A checking of self like a doctor?
Isn't this Jack Bastard Good Actor?"
It was my public leeture
About man's links with Torture
How it seems tied to Nature
And an idea to nurture...
"Yet, it can't be a culture,
Torture like Beak of Vulture,
Which Carrions face like Torture,
The Final Grant: A Suture...
In man it's An Aperture
Welcoming Prompt Ligature...
"Torture is no nice picture:
A Sadist's Acupuncture,
On receivers some puncture."
Betrayal
You stole the string from my heart,
It played like a harp.
Then you fashioned it into a ligature.
I fear to tell you how much of your love
that has drown me into your lake—
I'm a body under water.
Each time i walk on the street
my body, a drumsticks playing itself
would feel the rise of sensual excesses
tingling the weak layers of my cells.
Should I tell you why I come out each morning to see you?
because my heartbeats recites in elocution
at the wordings of your songs
& I'll try not to escape the ligature of music
you keep preparing for me.
You devour my heart
I'm afraid to tell you.
I've wanted my diction to appease you, smoulder every ashes infusing your mind like coal to the pot,
but it keeps infusing francophone rhythm, broken vowels clusters & brittle brittle voice.
I don't know how I'll feel
If I thaw the instant gaze frosting
under the radiances of your countenance.
Maybe I'll sink into loneliness all day long;
why I travel to the dark house every night.
Do not frown at this poem I've become, obianuju
I'll no longer lurk privily like Cobra.
I've fortify my heart to harm you via my love
where we could get hitched in the wedlock of the church
reciting poems from song of songs
that spew out from the bosom of Solomon.
What if I untied
my poetry and
bound you
with it
Ligature marks
left on your wrist
Would you struggle
to get free
or accept
your fate
for freedom's sake?
All the noise
you talked
beforehand
seems a bit
hypocritical
exercising your
right to remain silent
when pen begins
to draw my signature
Complimented with your
guilty confessions
we promote life's
best lessons.
Ooh, the
lines I'm about to write
on your body
will probably keep
the girl in you in hiding
and cause your
womanhood to burn
like lightening.
I really try to keep
my thoughts to myself
because I was once
told if I didn't have anything
good to say
shut the hell up
so now there's
all these ideas
I learned not to trust.
I stay messed up
keeping two diaries
One for therapy
and another no one
ever sees.
Now I ask you,
which one would
you rather read?
She replied ever so softly
and without any hesitation,
"Reveal your revelation daddy"
A match was struck
and we lusted until
tall candles melted
down to their last flicker.
From her head to her toes
she was covered with
everything
known
Form filling fantasy
In between the lines
and now you don't
see me
My signature is the
ligature
that ties me,
and fantasy
the stranglehold that
life has upon me.
I dread Christmas and
Easter
each feast day another way
to put on more weight.
It's never summer
when you're wrapped up in sorrow.
In the mirror
where my tracks swirl
on this river
when reflections send
a shiver
down my spine,
time holds its court.
We all dream of a better tomorriw
when today is the best that we've got,
anyhow
that dot in the distance
could be a missed chance
moving rapidly away.
S creaming infant.
P iercing cry.
I nsistant, persistent.
T ry the soother.
T ie the ligature.
H old the syringe.
E nd the craving.
D on't you see?
U terine hits are
M issed by baby
M anaging cold turkey?
Y our little junkie.
09/04/16
Number 3 Silent 1
You know they ruled your death an overdose. He shot you up in the breast. You were breast feeding the baby. No signs of heroin in her. No signs of heroin or any drugs in your apartment. You had just taken a shower and had laid out your clothes for work to get dressed. Your hair was still wet. You had ligature marks around your neck. You had been dead less than an hour. They said it was lividity. The medical examiner in Kentucky said that lividity doesn't set up that fast. Why? Why did they come to that conclusion, because he worked for the police department and was a confidential informant? Could that perhaps be the reason? You know it is....and my daughters murder gets no justice...what a travesty of justice!! Her Mom By the way she has a name Kymber Michelle Dye
re-jargon re-emancipation re-align re-alteration, by design despair intended, no fear with the
truth deflected, relagate remove re-tie, retrained in rejection to observe a "new" (religion)
the temporal (love) that grows again from former things, and a past inglorious decidley mean
rewind rewind ligature will bind, search (religeon) you will find, the death of beasts and blue eyed men,
from torah priests and sun gods shamen, who killed the flaxen haired and strong, and
claimed gods blessing to chant and song, yet the dark skinned jesus came! to end the sadness
and pointless pain, he came to answer the sacrifical call, and yet his one aim to end it all,
and when you see upon the cross, the blond haired christ or son of god, wonder not why it is so,
also to the occident did his compassion go, to end religion and its shame,the old was gone
when the truest LOVE called end of game.
half-clad
cult of violence
boiling their
soulmates
roasting
the foes
one by one
killed
by a ligature
they were building the dams
to harvest the power
from tears
fear
climbs on your shoulders
unburns hydrocarbons
a train moves through the black cloud
night
lies naked
Satish Verma