of canaries whose unrehearsed song he profanes

my throat tightened
as i read of his crime
constricted gasps of revulsion
i argued and calculated his precision
dispassionate honor
bedeviled prudence administered at the bedside
of daughters
and the taste on my tongue was venomous
biting down on nausea

choking
rabid screams lodged in my comprehension
unable to be flushed with a swallow
i needed
to feel what they didn’t
in their sleep
as his blade divides their softness
judgment’s adornment
bleeding pearls of atonement
slit from ear to ear
slit from convulsion to convulsion
of daughters
     of daughters
          of daughters

daughters who worm between his loins as maggots
who ooze from the ears and eyes of his honor
delivered between the forefinger and thumb into oblivion

my mind runs chasing a tail of the impenetrable
of diaries whose spine is bond
with
apologue, article
biography, book, chronicle
history
description, drama, memoir, epic
folktale, feature, narrative, recital, record, report
news, novel
discourse
of tragedy unfading upon bosoms mutilated
womanhood humiliated
fertility desecrated by the hand of elevation, exaltation
daughter’s lives bled over cancerous convections upon the soft bellies
of fathers

i wail
     i wail
i read and i spit
bile upon this man’s kind
and i desire
if only in perception to walk beside their death
to follow with halo of canary in muted song
straddling their graves
the blood of generations flowing brilliantly
down my thighs and seeping deep into the beds of these daughters

jeanne rené 12/05