num_pages: 320
description: The Choir I walk and I rest while the eyes of my deadlook through my own, inaudiblehosannas greetthe panorama charged sereneand almost ultraviolet with so much witness.Holy the sea, the palpitating membranedivided into dazzling fields and whaledark by the sun.Holy the dark, pierced by late revelers and dawnbirds,the garbage truck suspended in shy light,the oystershell and crushed clam of the driveway,the dahlia pressed like lotus on its open palm.Holy the handmade and created side by side,the sapphire of their marriage,green flies and shit in condums in the crabshellrinsed by the buzzing tide.Holy the light--the poison ivy livid in its glare,the gypsy moths festooning the pine barrens,the mating monarch butterflies between the chic boutiques.The mermaids handprint on the artificial reef. Holy the we,cast in the mermaid's image, smooth crotch of mystery and scale,inscrutable until divulged by godand sex into its gender, every toucha secret intercourse with angels as we walkproffered and taken. Their great wingsbatter the air, our retinas bloom silver spots like beacons.Better than silicone or graphite flesh absorbsthe shock of the divine crash-landing.I roll my eyes back, skylights brushed by plumage of detail,the unrehearsed and minuscule, the anecdotal midnightthemes of the carbon sea where we are zinnia, tomato, garlic wreathscrowning the compost heap. Elegy Somebody left the world last night, I felt itso, last minute, last half-breath before the stormthat hit all night last night drew back. Midmorningwindows streaked with mud like sides of ears. How long the journey? Sails, the windowpanes the blackthick tarp that kept the woodpile. DrySouthern wind, in minutes clothes bone-hard, clampedto the line. Clouds heaving in. The sky, the sky, who did arrive to kiss the eye behind the windswept sheet? Who was it, solono longer, shy and desirous to be clean? What songarose, what crust between the lidsspat and forgot? I woke, my fingers in my eyes
language: English
title: Rave:  Poems, 1975-1999
titlecomplete: Rave:  Poems, 1975-1999
genres: LGBT, Greece, Poetry
ratings_count: 64
awards: awardedAt: 915177600000
name: Lambda Literary Award
category: Lesbian Poetry
publisher: Copper Canyon Press