Rochelle Owens: Hermaphropoetics/Longing

Sculpture by Eugen von
Bruenchenhein (1910-1983)
as shown in Outsider Art
exhibit at Philadelphia
Museum of Art, 2013

In a dream
of a hermaphrodite
in silhouette 

slender and elongated 

a hermaphrodite

shimmering in scene after scene

staged and scripted

out of a lost narrative 

discovered after the siege

longing thrown onto the body

an asymmetrical form

hyperfeminine  hypermasculine

collecting and sorting

chicken bones  turkey bones
exquisite the beaks and feet

organizing bones

lovely the pigeon bones

sculpted  delicate

gothic cathedrals

shimmering in scene after scene

the shape of vertebrae

rising from a postapocalyptic pit

the waves of the Atlantic crash 

the RUINSCAPE disappearing

then the LANDSCAPE yielding forth

dandelion  yielding forth

lemon trees  strawberry

hibiscus  mango  goose grass
pomegranate

leaves spreading  undulating

secreting mucus  nectar

amorous the greedy seed amorous

covetous the warring roots

murderous sex cells

hypermasculine  hyperfeminine

hungry the fruiting bodies

swallowing the prey

the waves of the Atlantic crash

In a dream of a hermaphrodite

wanting to starve

wanting to devour heat and light

eating a scoop of sand

organizing skull  wishbone  femur

assembling  structuring

gables  spires  parapets

lancet arches  flying buttress
rib vaults

graceful the flowing tracery

a hermaphrodite

sculpting angels  prophets  kings
gargoyles  saints

shimmering in scene after scene

the shape of vertebrae
rising from a postapocalyptic pit

[note.  This is the fourth installment of Rochelle Owens’ ongoing work, Hermaphropoetics, to be presented on Poems and Poetics.  Of the series as a whole she writes: “Rare but real. Accidents of art and nature in which the senses entwine. Hermaphropoetics, a series of poems inspired by spores, fruiting bodies, rupture, comfort with the rottenness.  Metamorphoses, irregular sprouting of new neurological connections leads to the process of writing and living.  Poetic meanings that lay in wait underground.”  The proof of course is in the work itself. (J.R.)]