DisRemember Me~

~Pandora Reconstructed~

I think I'll do it off a bridge

said the ungirl with the rose between her teeth

or maybe off a tall

tall spire

or at the edge of a fountain

in the middle of a summer day

when all the suits are ambling

and the students are lazing

and the homeless are congregating

to see the spectacles of urban somnambulation

 

The woman shook her head wound through with voluptuous thoughts

as she poured more coffee

and the waitress bent low to refill the sugar bowl

as the ungirl played her tongue across ruby blossoms;

and what do you propose that will accomplish

asked the woman

do you think it will give them pause

do you think they will even notice

 

The ungirl smiled

she said

it's really not the act itself

I have no delusions about how broken bones turn to ash

and blood seeps into chalk outlines

quickly forgotten

and the news moves on to more sensational behavior

it's not about that at all

 

The woman blinked the future from the corners of her eyes

and whispered

ahhhh

I see

it is not the sacrifice

but whether the sacrifice will be permitted

 

The girl inclined her dove brow into the moment

she smiled

she said

maybe this diner will do

it kind of worked for HunnyBunny after all

and she slipped a box from between her second and third rib

and placed it on the table

 

The woman ran her fingers across the golden letters

and said

Pandora

what are you really up to

 

Pandora winked

she opened the box

her spine exploded into feathered memories

sweeping

spreading

colliding with windows

until glass was shattered

raining everywhere

 

The waitress ducked beneath a booth

the patrons ran for the exit

the woman sighed

the ungirl parted her lips

and began to breathe in

deep

and deeper

until every sin

every dark corner of human memory

was refolded into her box

 

Fairy tales are for children

the woman said

took the ungirl in her palm

and disremembered her complex compositions

dismembered her allusions

her illusions

and poured her like water

back into the world

until the glass was whole

and the waitress kept on waitressing

and the patrons swallowed greasy fare

while a man panhandled for his dinner outside

 

I think I'll do it off a bridge

next time

said the ungirl

and the woman smiled

and said

give me the box

and go and live your life

fall in love

have a baby

grow old

 

The ungirl sipped her Cola

and the woman drank her coffee

and the people kept on somnambulating

while the ungirl decided

next time

she would keep her dreams

to herself

a half past midnight

into a dawn

 

 

 copyright:2010vssmd/pa.inc

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

 

 

 

excerpt from

 

 

 

 

Reviews

[Jibey]

Interesting take on a suicide bomber, I decided! Or the image of one being used to describe the ungirl's desire to do something spectacular, to open up the mysterious Pandora's box next to her heart... I was taken by the woman with her voluptuous thoughts, who happened to be there and brought some down-to-earth common sense to the ungirl -- perhaps turning her into a girl after all... helping her to move away from those shattered memories of the night...

As always, your writing is intriguing and surreal in many ways, highly imaginative and fluent in its imagery and diction... a 'mindspring' indeed, as Robin puts it... I'm conscious that I take a wild stab at understanding it and must often be wide of the mark... but whatever the story is, the poem flows so well and arrests us with its unfolding narrative...

[David W Moore III]

Veryvsureal, very powerful, very thought provoking. Very well done. (I get royalties for using very, thanks to your piece I'll be rich). This may be my favorite piece I've read on writers cafe.

[Bard Constantine]

Poetic wish fulfillment brought to life in such creative style... the idea of the woman inhaling the sin from the world... since woman is often the scapegoat for birthing sin in legend is absolutely divine. Love so many of the expressions used here, from 'ungirl' to 'disremember', truly classic Selene language. Trust, this one probably won't be disremembered for quite some time...

[Flo]

A lovely write, which has flow to it that some poems don't, and judging by the reviews below, You know it's a good - no but execellent piece of writing.
Need I say more?
-Flo

[dovetailer]

"I think I'll do it off a bridge
next time
said the ungirl
and the woman smiled
and said
give me the box
and go and live your life
fall in love
have a baby
grow old"

How we die makes a statement...how we live makes a legacy...
I've loved this poem since the first time I read it...
you know what I think about your writing...
"Ditto"

[Linda Marie Van Tassell]

Depending on what an individual brings to the table, he can interpret this poem in many ways.

For me, it made me think of when I was a little girl. I grew up in such an abusive environment, and I often contemplated suicide and the many ways in which to do it. I lived near the James River Bridge, and I often contemplated jumping from that bridge into the James River. It was the least bloody way of dying, after all.

I had a dream one night that I had walked down to the James River Bridge, had climbed over the railing, and stood there, hanging onto the backside of the railing, looking down at the water. I had a change of heart and had started to turn around to climb back over the railing onto the safety of the bridge, when, all of a sudden, my hands lost their grip, I slipped, and fell.

Not being able to swim, I quickly drowned. I could see myself floating up out of my body and looking back down. I was floating upside down in the water, with my long hair flowing in rhythm with the waves. I think that was the last time I ever thought about jumping off that damn bridge. LOL!

It’s crazy the way the mind thinks, especially that of an ungirl in a world where all she hears is that she is unloved, unwanted … a nothing and a nobody. Like I said … it depends upon what an individual brings to the table.

I guess we are all like Pandora, our box filled with a plethora of insanity that we have to make some kind of sense out of.

I love this.

Linda Marie

[Ru Banerjee]

loved every line of it--the vividness, the lucidity of the imagery and the description is so touching, you can almost breath the venom of the shattered memories of the night! The lines are piercing, insightful and intensely suggestive and surreal, without a bit of overdoing in the piece! The way you have woven a rich, poignant tapestry of a woman's heart, the ensuing pain, trauma of dealing with the memories with the intriguing narrative is commendable and noteworthy.

[Richard Lynn Livesay]

loved it when she "blinked the future from the corner of her eyes"..."not the sacrifices but whether the sacrifices will be permitted"...it is that not knowing for sure that keeps us looking around the corner. and she wisely decided to keep her dreams to herself...a Selene masterpiece!

[...]

. creation and destruction ... destruction and creation ... sacrifices and surprises ... journeys and journals ... moments and laments ... arrows and ardent admirers ... follies and followers ... i don't know if i will ever decipher the maze ... but it's one heck of a soulful journey ... gets etched in one's memory in no time ... :) ...

[The Cougar's Den]

I have no delusions about how broken bones turn to ash
and blood seeps into chalk outlines
quickly forgotten
and the news moves on to more sensational behavior
it's not about that at all ----- It isn't, is it?

and poured her like water
back into the world --- slipping unseen in the now. yeah.

Nicely penned, dear one. Such deep thinking only a pulse below the surface.

[TAO]

Powerful... I LOVED this... Reading this, I remember how I often imagine approaching a demon forcing his way into my home, how I would like to go out; it's always just to see if fate would allow me to move my will against theirs, and break them, and send them screaming in the terror they came to unleash, right back into hell.

This has to be one of my ABSOLUTE favorites... Very beautiful work, dark, fluid, expressive as always, brilliant to say the least.