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(spin cycle) centrifugal man

by Richard Paez


the rope you threw
in hopes of saving me
has wrapped around my neck
and choked me.
as i hang here
the warm, pearly wax
that was my intelligence
runs down my inner thigh
forms a puddle of alcohol-sweat
and coagulating blood
around my drowning feet.

but that potion purged
failed to fix my failures
my crooked neck
and twisted spine
made me as vicious as ever
your centrifuge
of words and weaning
isolated my hope
and little else
my strata of existence:
hope up above, and I
way too far below.

you spineless wretch,
you hid behind rope-
hit the button
stopped your own sermon
just as blood began to flow.

may the angels
who's feather's i've plucked
to decorate my room
forgive me
now that i am helpless.

as i hang here
revolving before you
and my world
still spinning around me
i smile at you:
so this is how you saved me?
so this was your plan b?
everything you did
just made me stronger
so you yanked the rope and killed me.

now i see
that heaven
is just another vial
filled with my feathers,
wax,
and blood

10/04/2001

Posted on 10/04/2001
Copyright © 2024 Richard Paez

Member Comments on this Poem
Posted by Michele Schottelkorb on 03/10/04 at 09:07 AM

damn... compelling piece, that smacks of bitter truth and well guided judgment on the speaker's part... incredible imagery scorches from your words... brilliant...

Posted by Michele Schottelkorb on 03/12/04 at 09:19 PM

re-reading this piece, knowing what it is actually about, gives it so much more power... you have used words with mighty force and spat them back in the face of maternity that was not maternal... i have this theory of "writing it out"... this poem encompasses that theory to the nth degree... powerful flushing out of that which we no longer need... this poem is reverberating with justice... blessings...

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