Misspelled Love

Inspired by Derrida's work "The Animal That Therefore I Am", this concerns the eternal chasm between the Subject and the Animal Other. Why are pets widely abused? Why is love oft violent... generally?

What silent thoughts must cross your mind?
As your gaze hangs by my shower blinds;
Or is it strange that I should find,
My honest skin obscene...?

Shall I sit you on my cottoned knees?
That cower to the fresh unease,
Of wounds your fangs once bore,
In fury; or a misspelled kiss?

Shall I court your flourished paw?
I know not yet what it says...
And all the wayward words I draw,
Can only feign some sorry sense!

(But why pain you with twisted tongues?
For I sure show my share of wrongs;
In resorts to cries when meaning's failed,
Dies my train of thoughts derailed.)

So I hold dear your muzzled face,
Give your needled fur a caress,
While vigils of taut leashes press,
Charges of a violent love...

Reviews

[bettayetta]

Hello. This work seems, at first, to be professing a longing lover.
Yes! A longing lover!
I have scars on my knees where my dog greeted me.
The love can be shown violently...It's passion!
A beautiful poem!

[Swagato Saha]

Thank you!

What you call "passion", I am tempted more to read as a more traumatic fear, an out-of-joint-ness (much in the way Derrida sees it). To think of all the notorious genetic engineering that goes into manufacturing breeds of dogs and cats that appeal more to our perverse sensibilities (often coming at great expense of life and limb for the creatures themselves) - it surely is a deeply perverse passion! I wonder if you agree-

[bettayetta]

"Perverse passion" I do agree.