You’re stuck in his marshlands, his golden words.
You don’t look like him; I knew who he was by the
Palm of his hand. You think it was love? He was obsessed
To hold on to all the things he had already lost. The immaterial
That was never there for good reasons. She could never walk out
Because she was never really there. When he reeked of other women’s
Genitals and fell into the bed to enter her too, she opened like a dead flower.
And he raised you, this man, walking hand in hand with sad women.
And she, with her big belly, carrying life that he would gradually suffocate.
Put into his hands, out of his mind, the grand conversationalist who never
Listens, never pays attention, with the gullible tongue, the man with a million
Stories up his sleeve. Would I ever trust men like him too? Would I insult my
Own intelligence like that? Was sex that important in this equation?
I had rendered him transparent when I was a little girl, when his heart gave me away.
He thought he had me all figured out because he made me,
Because I behaved like him before all the destruction and chaos,
I acted like he did before he became artificial and pretentious.
He saw me as weak and vulnerable, he wanted to refine me, transform
My skin into stone. I was not supposed to cry. He beat himself right out
Of me. The antagonism is burned into my organs. The self-loathing and the
Grinning mouth. The fist hidden behind the back, the slaughterhouse in his heart.
---
The pentalingual author of “Within Paravent Walls”, fin de siècle and décadence enthusiast, Laura Gentile, shares some of her blog with us each week.
You can find more of Laura Gentile’s Poetry & Prose on her website, Croque-Melpomene.
Reserve a copy of Laura Gentile’s debut novel here.
Subscribe to Laura’s YouTube channel.
