Submissions by spdred (spidey)

why do you lay such praises at my feet?  
why the silken hymns, slathered on my skin  
like fragrant oils?
call me not your goddess,
heed! heed well the warnings of those before you.  
   
why do you call me an ocean?  
nay- why do you love me for it?  
i am not the scenic gentle beaches of the north;
i am not as kind as your lagoons.
heark! hearken the cries of the drowned.  
   
why do you kneel?  
why do you lift your eyes to me  
as if i am the Moon herself?  
   
do you not know  
i am...

curled and coiled
slipping, silken on your tongue  
in silence, we are sung  
though touches scream  
 
there is no need to explain-  
no use in trying  
 
what language holds now hymns  
for nameless gods?  
what temples reach towards  
forgotten names?  
 
our voices, crystal spheres lay  
heavy in our lungs  
 
a thousand tongues have we  
yet none hold gravity enough
(one did, now torn asunder  
with the tower)  
 
a cleaving, a bereaving  
that entangled...

black is for birth. white is for death.
red is for everything in between.  
 
but her birth was ripped from death's pale hands.  
it's always been a wonder.  
 
the air was that of mourning.  
her father sat in the waiting room;  
weeping and praying and weeping.  
the doctors had prepared for a stillborn.  
 
she arrived tiny, skeletal--  
more a fetus than a baby.  
 
but she arrived with breath,  
and breath enough to scream.  
 
and the scream that split the hospital halls
was red...