Poetry of Rae Pater continued




Roulette

We make love an art form
of coloured candles
and drifting lips.
girl- boy-

blur to indistinction
recede into sensation
moons and spires
on aqua skies
boy-boy-girl-

and raspberry petals
scattered within sighs
nipples excite tongues
pressed and open
boy-girl-girl

we are deep within each other
a pool of nectar
to sip and savour
impaled
and adrift
among waterlilies
girl-girl-

a tumbleweed tangle
of vines and roots
lipstick flavours
and fragrant arms
winding into
starburst clusters
girl.

---

Snake Goddess

She weaves through a room.
She is a viper
and the daughter of a viper

the ground falls away in her wake
like a hollow womb
black empty curve

her diamond scales
glitter like tinsel
and Christmas lights
they dazzle crowds
that part to let her pass

they are blinded by razzle
and don’t see
the belly crawler that she is

how her nipples blacken
against the earth
aroused by her own movement

they chant Hosannas
and wave their palm fronds
even as the earth
disconnects from their feet.

by Rae Pater.
©2002

---

Inside the White Pillars of the Moon

A relatively small crevice
in the general geography
it dips to mysterious depths,
a fissure in a pale moon surface
admitting travelers
and occasional pleasure seekers.

Functional, not decorative.
A slender memento
from the shrine
of the Goddess,

a common possession
and casually owned
avidly sought
by merchants and warriors
looted by pirates,
and worshipped by virgins.

A slippery cleft
in earthworm tones
accursed treasure.

by Rae Pater
©2002

---

How the Moon Stares

I dangle here, foetal curves
folded into midnight hues
curled and hung
on this blue curtain.

Purple-grey, my veins stretch
taut with swollen death.
Stars chase my fingertips
and skitter over maiden moon,

as she runs cold fingers
down my blonde haze
Personal with disapproval,
insistent on exposure

Pacing, tall and pensive
through layered misty secrets
she lingers in her half life,
resenting my release,

consigned as she is
to cycles of eternal futility.

by Rae Pater
©2002

---

Without Black

You give me my colours.

I want to say
how many ways
I love you

I love you the way a bird loves
the perfect curve of its nest,
the way a cat loves the sun

I want to paint
luminous designs
on your polished skin
show you
how white
dissolves in the light,
without shade.

Lie with you
on sapphire satin
contrast

say
all of the ways
you are beautiful,

you are more lovely
than all the sequin stars
that spangle the dark
or the butterfly of sunset
that flies into night.

that
white by itself
absorbs everything,
becomes bland.

It requires
the relief of darkness
to shine.


by Rae Pater
(c)2002

 

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See one more super poem by Rae HERE


Photography: New Zealand seaweed by Sue Baker Wilson
(negative of the image)

Music: You were always on my mind

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