Two Poems
I’d leave the creepers as they are. Bless the casements
if they should crumble; there’s more than time enough
to make repairs. English ivy and fierce-twining roses
on this shore or another would suit. Now, I will wish it
our corner here in the dreaming,
and write until it is so.
One fine morning, it’s the ivy
that will show you: your bones
have all split at the seams. Arrows
are made easily from these. Learn
that nobody else has your back. Trust
is more often than not for the weak,
and love unforgivable. Your stone heart,
you must split in four; poison the quarters
with marrow from each shaft. It’ll hurt
no greater than what wounds you have.
Always watch the ivy. Study both cracks
and rebinding. Nock swiftly now, aim quick
to court the kill. Your tendril-bound breath
fills each fissure like ivy. Now, watch.
ADRIENNE J. ODASSO’s poetry has appeared in a wide variety of strange and wonderful publications, including Sybil’s Garage, Mythic Delirium, Jabberwocky, Cabinet des Fées, Midnight Echo, Not One of Us, Dreams & Nightmares, Goblin Fruit, Strange Horizons, and Stone Telling. Her début collection, Lost Books (Flipped Eye Publishing, 2010), was nominated for the 2010 LNPA Best New Poet Award and for the 2011 Forward Prize, and was also a finalist for the 2011 People’s Book Prize. Her two chapbooks, Devil’s Road Down and Wanderlust, are available from Maverick Duck Press. Her second collection, The Dishonesty of Dreams, was published by Flipped Eye in August 2014. You can find her at ajodasso.livejournal.com (and on Twitter under the same name). NB: “Ivy” has appeared previously in Not One of Us #50.