Old World

From your throne in my chest
you rearrange me like Pangaea;
 

thrusting apart long-established boundaries,
violently forming callused mountain ranges,
gauging wide new rivers from which I flow.
 

shifted by collision from the inside out,
one continent is toppled by another
and I'm left with nothing to stand on.
 

toxic geysers pipe into my system
and I endure the havoc you wreak,
waiting for the quakes to subside.
 

I awake to find that, in my own skin,
I'm in a place no less foreign than Venus,
and no less welcoming than home.

Reviews

[PianoandPage]

molly d. a pleasure to read this untitled piece. may i suggest "pangaea"?

i love the form and meter throughout this piece. the very first line hit me like "wow". imagining your lover ruling you from your core. a position of power, close to the heart, the breasts, the lungs.

the systematic and consistent metaphor of your body as a continent and (assumed) him as a demigod reshaping through violent love was breath taking and expert. :)

loved your lines, you got poetic without getting lost in word play (something i always seem to struggle with).

the end i had to read 4 or 5 times. very clever and could be read a couple different ways.

this is complex and eloquently shows that the best loves and lovers bring us to a purer version of ourselves.

[An owl on the moon]

You have such a profound depth to your writing. Once line can contain a single touch and at the same time an entire world. Emotionally stirring and richly thought provoking.

[Pax Analog]

Wow!

Love the trope of passion as awesome terrestrial wonder, grounded in primordial quakes and geysers.

"I awake to find that, in my own skin,
I'm in a place no less foreign than Venus,
and no less welcoming than home."

The entire poem and the closing lines are just brilliant.

It's a more powerful rendering of Eliot's "returning home to know it for the first time."

It's all the more impressive that you welcome the "violence," one of the principal ironies of soul sexuality.

Excellent work.

[James Paulin]

The crashing of continents and various ensuing havoc is quite a metaphor. Your world has been turned upside down, obviously. I enjoyed this poem in form and verse.

[caliban]

thumbs up.