Nude Worth Studyby Phyllis Jean GreenMeet my new blank book. Stunning, isn't she? Dig the virginal glow. Bared skin an ivory could turn an elephant green. (I see a pachyderm born to survive. Age finally fells, fans flock to wreathe her in a sea of wild strawberry-dyed cloth perfumed with jasmine. Tusks take half a hut as they wait for the patina that is said to revive dead bone.) To cover between sittings, work in a large peacock. Near holographic. feathers should have the standard eyes, dark and hypnotic. Rest, shake, then stir. Here, blood-rust plays footsie and handsie with aqua and an anemone'd blue stands in for royal. Meandering black fences can no way contain. Our artist -- Indian, I feel sure -- aced a dizzy angle, then fanned the pimped tail to the max. (Fold back over front to where a navel would wink, were our inner creature less fantasy bound. Sounds as shy as the first hand-dampening touch by an ostrich quill or pencil fell off some truck.) (Magnet in here. Got to be.) My daughter, notorious for doing magic, presented you. Just like her. To touch is a sacrilege, far less ravage. But Art's middle name is Leap. Going to rule my lines! My loops and curls will rival Cirque de Soleil's. NO striking out, NO erasing. I sharpen a marigold Eagle fresh from a box and plunge. Blood spills as the muse and I charge, leaving a trail of writer's scat. Rushing dashes us against rocks at a waterfall's base. Isn't pretty. Somewhere there's a poet who gets it right the first time. (Third? Tenth?) Somewhere, I surmise, one who's worthy. Hear me out. Nowhere is there a poet you will treasure you more when too many tides leave you a tissue-balled shell, never quite wet, never quite dry. So open for me, love. Spread your inner flesh wide. Like this, want you to tell. ©Phyllis Jean Green, June 2008 "Repeat offender" Phyllis Jean Green began seriously committing the crime of writing in various genres in 1986. Positive verdicts in 2007-8 included top awards in a Dan Sullivan Memorial Contest and a Mad Hatters Review competition. She was a finalist in the Margaret Reid and New Millennium Writings contests. Mountain High is her fifth Old Mountain Press anthology felony. Recent misdemeanors involve a Jane's Stories Press Foundation anthology, Calling Down the Mountain; Ardent! ; and a Notable Entry in Burning the Midnight Oil. A poem with a record, "L'il Holly 'roun' BEER&WINE" is currently doing time in Sensations Magazine's astounding 20th Anniversary Issue, Spoken Word, which features works by performers at events such as Secaucus, NJ's Centennial Celebration. Editor David Messineo reviews Green's chapbook, Above and Below [Pudding House, 2007] in the issue. She is grateful for the opportunity to write for domestic violence-targeting Angels That Care. Friday Noon Poets, NC, has been a "huge plus." The Illinois native and her husband share a passion for books and art and kicking back with friends and family and Yorkies Nick and Shoog to watch videos or gaze out at deer and squirrels as they dine on the greenery. |