Once an Island (poem)

ONCE AN ISLAND

I. Postulations of self-fulfilling prophecies of hide-and-seek disorders

once an island, always an island? some old spinster baking bread and. growing tomatoes in her shack in the mountains:

lost in her own dialect.

only the spiders and cobwebs crawl and hang over her death--

what darkness and hermitage haunt you, woman.

you have constructed
this house. each and. every. detail:

each stone in each wall.
each lock on each door.
every barb.
every beware.

you bark.
like a dog. trained: to kill.

you chase. even the most persistent. resilient. valiant. away.

you. are. untouchable.
and you wear it like a crown.

your dying is your living: limb by limb. follicle. by. follicle.

* * *

II. Bonfires of labels and diagnoses

but you can be convinced: woman. of the otherwise; the Overworld:

where there is no fear of the meat that grows on the triumph-- fat with juices;
and where the roses never wilt.

where the fragile and the delicate can be weak yet beautiful.
where a man: will only-- tell you the truth.

no more drifting, my weeping islet--
your tides will have a country--

let's hook, your-- wandering island.

and:

reel You. In.