Les Fleurs Du Mal

free verse poem

you have this way of looking at me
that is never really looking,
you go over my body
as if committing it to memory,
as if I didn’t know any better


this is not the gaze of a lover
but the scrutiny of a student.


So you read my lines and write my footnotes,
making me your favorite disquisition
a beautiful paraphrase of a vile verse.
You chew on my words but spit something foreign,
making me a french poet and spiritual sorrow
a misspell of visceral pain


you have this way of touching me
that is never really touching,
you fiddle with my corners
as if you’re turning pages
as if I didn’t know any better


this darkness is mine to survive and not yours to sacrifice
on the altar of the damned.


And damned be indeed
Baudelaire
and the rest of your french poets
or whoever it was that made you so
sentimental my darling,
you really don’t know any better


there are no flowers to my evil.

Author's Note

it's been a while since I published something and I'm an insicure mess about it. I would greatly appreciate the most brutal and honest feedback you can muster. Thanks!

Reviews

[emmajoy]

At first there are hints of mystery to this so called lover of yours, or, a mix of maladjusted intent. Decided on the latter.. Feel he sees you as a notch on his belt.. rather than someone he wants to know and know.. perhaps slowly. Rather than a man who sees you more as the day's hot roast. In a way - have read four times, the way in which you've written both emotionally and critically, there's sadness and touches of offence felt. That said i think you're too adult for him. He's more like a child picking at the pic-mix containers.. not knowing what the hell he wants. This really a canny case of perception on your part; analytical, but not ugly. More a shrug.

[Pete]

wonderful analogy. take me as i am, do not read more into it. appreciate my beauty, do not try to interpret. a beautiful poem should be experienced and appreciated. feel don't think.

there are no flowers to my evil

she is what she is. take it or leave it but you will never change it. i really like this. bravo ... :)

[Thomas Fitzgerald]

It's that casam of feeling, are we worthy or indeed even bothered to look and appreciate it, well done, good read.

[Leviari]

thank your for reading :)

[jacob erin-cilberto]

can't be brutal here...i love the sardonic tone...and the idea of being felt as less a lover and more something perused academically...
being scrutinized and reviewed like a play...and the french poet thing reminds me of Rimbaud...who was such an a*s of a person, but did write beautiful poetry...but what you give us here is the idea that French poets be damned, beautiful poetry be damned.
read my body as something beautiful and sexy...not something to research and cite.
I like this very much, especially being an English teacher...it touches me...
j.

[Leviari]

hi! thank you for reviewing! I've only recently discovered Rimbaud so that definitely inspired me, I'm so glad you caught that reference.
Thank you again