Saturday, March 31, 2012

THE TASTE OF COPPER

His face is still the face I love
But his eyes are weeping blood
Great clotted tears are plinking
Into his cupped hands as he stumbles
Towards me, his shoulders curved
Around his body unnaturally

I reach to touch him but my hand
Is not my hand - a small snake's head
Appears at the end of my arm
Begins to sway hypnotically
As it nears his head, its tiny forked
Tongue flickering close to his forehead

And it's as if I cannot control
This snake that is my hand but not
I open my mouth to warn my love
But nothing but old pennies spill out
The snake turns to look at me
Its eyes the colour of used snow
I close my mouth - try not to watch
See only, serpent's jaws yawning wide
I close my eyes tight.

S.E.Ingraham©


10 comments:

  1. Yikes, that definitely is a nightmre. Serpent's jaws yawning wide....nothing I would personally choose to witness. A wonderfully crafted poem.

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  2. So surreal! And some crazy crazy imagery. You see, this is what I LOVE about the human condition- there is so much that happens whilst we are not conscious- I mean, what is it that you are processing here? HIS FACE IS STILL THE FACE I LOVE....maybe in this poem the nightmare is loving someone, but not being able to tell them because of past hurt or some kind of trauma...or its an anxiety that about rejection....or maybe you just really really don't like snakes ha ha. Great imagery and description throughout - very much enjoyed :)

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  3. holy crap...this just got more surreal as it went on...the clotted tears, unable to control the snake, but it is part of you and you know what is coming and are helpless...the pennies...wow...um yeah hope you never have that one again...

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  4. Sharon- Wow. I'm afraid to go to sleep now... I especially like the last stanza... pennies coming out of the mouth- yuk!

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  5. heck...this is chilling...the scene with the pennies falling out of the mouth while trying to warn the loved one...ghostly...

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  6. Creepy, eerie, quite surreal...and totally awesome! You painted the perfect nightmarish scene here!

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  7. Wow! Frightening and nightmarish indeed. Good job!

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  8. You sure nailed the prompt with this one. Really disturbing imagery here. I'm glad it's the morning and I don't have to sleep for hours!

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  9. pennies spilling out of the mouth of a snake. now what would Freud say about that?

    semantic feeling

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  10. thanks to all of you for visiting my nightmare ... I wonder what Freud would say about it too zongrik ...

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