Conceal the Heart, Dusted with Stains

Oh, hatred in the heart, oh ungenerous—that you did not love me enough . . . why did it take thirty years to find you here surrendered with your cruelty beside you: long limbs, soft hands, falsehood and such malice until metaphors, round and succulent in the mouth, decorative textures expressing concealment, response of the body, escape hatch to be folded into and what lives inside you now: delicate filigree along the doorpost where I cannot enter.

intoxicated with forgiveness/win pity, escape disgrace/now is the only darkness

i was left as part of the dying generation now: tattered in my mortal dress
i left no monument to my insignificance
save three books written in the small hours of my self
pinned against the artifice of eternity
 i moved toward my imaginary future a poison of deformities
not trusting anyone
cluttered with waste was the life i lived  

Bobbi Lurie’s third poetry collection, Grief Suite, is forthcoming from CustomWords. Her other  collections are The Book I Never Read and Letter from the Lawn. Her poems have appeared in numerous print and online publications, including diode v1n2.