"Vultures" repost

[radiantfracture]

Posting again for a performance application! (Also, M. used the poem in his class. How cool is that?)

A poem about making art in a bad time.


Vultures

I say vultures are the only poets:
they gorge on the remains
of old age and surprise attacks
treachery, waste, and accident
Cholera, botulism, and anthrax --
They swallow everything, and transmute it
into thick black feathers, into flight.

Let me be like that, unabashed to be seen
naked and hideous and hungry, transforming
in the boiling kettle of my belly
all the poison in the meat,
all the sickness and sour hate
into undigestible beauty.

Comments

[sylvanfae]

I was just reading this week about alchemy and an androgenous vulture's significance at the beginning of alphabets in this book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/127974116-alphabets-and-the-mystery-traditions

So that's a fun synchronicity. Especially since what I was reading right before coming to my reading page and saw this was a page about Egypt's name (Kemet and others) that I had looked up when reading about the origin of the word "alchemy" because of that book.

Or did I hear about that book in the first place because of one of your posts or its comments???

[radiantfracture]

I don't think I've heard of the book, so thank you! Andogynous vultures sound right up my alley.