Medusa Sea Star
braids already-there
hair. She weaves more.
Swallowtail knits
a stomach to eat
the self it forgets.
It's not how you build it, so long as you build it.
braids already-there
hair. She weaves more.
Swallowtail knits
a stomach to eat
the self it forgets.
It's not how you build it, so long as you build it.
Rachel - I have read this several times. I am assuming a Sevenling, so this doesn't have to make literal, but rather intuitive sense. I am not sold of the last line, it is too pat. I don't know what a Medusa Sea Star is, I am guessing a sea creature, like a starfish. I like this image. for some reason, it brings to mind a watery grave, even though I simultaneously visualize sea kelp or other seaweed. I like that I see both. I also don't know what you are referencing in the second strophe with Swallowtail, allow that doesn't particularly bother me, either. I am going with a reference to butterfly and having butterflies in one's stomach. This, to me, is a fresh take on anxiety - the stomach is telling the self (the mind) what the mind is willfully ignoring. I do think you can build yourself a less pat ending, given the ambiguity of the rest. Which, as I've said, I like.
ReplyDeleteThanks very much for taking time on this one, Sorella. I've really not been feeling it lately (hence the break), but I appreciate your meeting me with effort and attention nonetheless.
ReplyDeleteThe medusa sea star is an animal I saw in a museum once, and (I just discovered) not easy to Google under that alias; it's a type of basket star. The swallowtail is a butterfly, and I was thinking of how butterflies actually digest themselves in the cocoon. (In some sense, butterflies come out of their own stomachs.) You're dead right about the last line. Thanks again--I'll come back when I'm able to rock 'em again.