Wilson - Splinters Are Children of Wood

splinters are children of wood THE ERNEST SANDEEN PRIZE IN POETRY Editors Joyelle McSweeney, Orlando Menes

2019	Splinters Are Children of Wood, Leia Penina Wilson
2017	Among Ruins, Robert Gibb
2015	Underdays, Martin Ott
2013	The Yearning Feed, Manuel Paul Lpez
2011	Dreamlife of a Philanthropist, Janet Kaplan
2009	Juan Lunas Revolver, Louisa A. Igloria

Editor John Matthias (19972007)

2007	The Curator of Silence, Jude Nutter
2005	Lives of the Sleepers, Ned Balbo
2003	Breeze, John Latta
2001	No Messages, Robert Hahn
1999	The Green Tuxedo, Janet Holmes
1997	True North, Stephanie Strickland

LEIA PENINA WILSON University of Notre Dame PressNotre Dame, Indiana Copyright 2019 by Leia Penina Wilson Published by the University of Notre Dame Press Notre Dame, Indiana 46556 USA undpress.nd.edu All Rights Reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Wilson, Leia Penina, author. Title: Splinters are children of wood / Leia Penina Wilson. Description: Notre Dame, Indiana : University of Notre Dame Press, [2019] | Series: Ernest Sandeen prize in poetry Identifiers: LCCN 2019023573 (print) | LCCN 2019023574 (ebook) | ISBN 9780268106171 (hardback ; alk. paper) | ISBN 9780268106188 (trade paperback ; alk. she comes too near & feeds from the bodies into shapes is shaped now her christmas tree violence ginger man violence reindeer violence did you know reindeer could be violent all that merry snow everywhere snow that unwarm moisture the shyness start fluffing it this prison is very old and prisoning bee remover pigeon control pink wallpaper with horses and maids o its rowdy so very rowdy & yet did you know me hands i went the forkd way you showed my mouthspat its gravel & yet when i killed my father i frightened youi had only models of ripping off your clothes & i couldnt i will not be noisy when you want me to be still i will be glad everything lays its corpse but i will not die i will not repent. each mans end is all the cunt for himself. i lay an iris for each of us who in poverty walks behind eurydice. combat of beauty and pleasure. probably i wont she says we were each others vicious education.we learned so much we ruined.they built monuments to our broken bones said even our english was broke a shape of a monster a woman some mal formed skin over bones over skin over bones plenty of fatfatthe shape of make it out alive make it out alive. do we ever dont be that bitch just behead your lover that learning. there is a wraith in the birth trees watch out i ask the prophet the seer who dreams for dreams too permit me death too. i cut my own throat close my own wound wear my own nightdescended blood.i will seek aide from my own enemies if there are friends here hide your eyes. nothing.sacrifice everything believe innothing be nothinghow did you get away with that for so longwe wish on a shooting starcombine our powersi do not want to be lonelyyour slick afterbirthfailed body of hectorprophetic womanheadhead of whatever you kill & carry around this killing your stilled-lifethis battle again again is tiresomeall these old white men and their same feelingsmoon chalice! i want! to be stronghow will you answer lover! cunt! exile! the city some dreamydreamagain trapped an imagination limited by that imaginationi miss somehow now weighted againstsatisfaction o grim mouthgrim reaperjust watch me step into the sea out of (your) reachagain you think yourself a great original to have pleased me (once)what words will move me what desire cuts throat to naveli cut it out i regret only the intimacyin the thralls of the jaws of another afternoon we demand the others redanother transformation rainbow double moon heartache! or what dream what maiden what full name did they stitch you up in angry dead animal skin to mirror your angry dead animal soul rage yetrecognition i am i am i am each mans end an end and & i lay my hand in the wolf s mouth the wolf knows it will lose its freedom i will lose my hand we stare at each other like lovers like we dont need freedom or hands like the sea hasnt risen to welcome us backlike we havent lost her its always a her my island body recoilsas they try to rename me every mispronounced syllable a papercutso many papercuts i die i try to imagine it hurts less this timemy imagination falters dropping to one knee i leave blood wonder when it will be used against me the sea that encloses heryoung body is the sea of many arms i cant flick whats leftover out i just rub it in stain it good what fragrance is this my favorite smellthe blazing secrecy of noon once more undone its all pasted underneath my fingernails underneath the sea where it is dark & muddy & i am blind underneath the sea where it is dark there is no edge so sleep my sistersleep they feed me this new violencemadonnaun updated whore they make me into a real rat & marvel my loss of fear sibyl or unreliable narratormy abstract says something about early 20th century modernism i dont feel moderni do feel a machine they braid purple flowers into my hair & wonder at its longits softness they smell itmore lavender more lavenderyou will never hear it againthey say the closeness of the earth the skyyou will neversee it againthey say those autumn oak leaveslose the softness of your sexherelet me soften youwith sexthey do i cant write this poemi hate them is this my epicwanting all white men deadreally all men isnt desire weirdthat it expresses the entire spectrum of human emotion gets me i think im tiredof poetry (is that okay to say) what am i in possession of really helen as she desires becomes capable antigone muscles reacting that time i ate only bread and milk the beautiful or the terrifying that iciclewhat am i having neither launched 1,000 ships nor thrown ashes into the air nor grieved in those ways there must be different words why else insistlet me let me learn warlet me learn gathering one flower two flower three flowerspring flower unmediated yellowknow me!sprung from cloudscalm afternoon clouds dont you see the winds love me! (frenetic laughter) dont you see the soil loves me! (a small quake) they hate youdont you see even the dumb birds hate you i can tell you dont see. i will not award you for trying to save me from death for dying too thats so stupidlet me ask you what would you learnfully armored unblushedspear& arrow& (shoulder shrug) guile yet to take new bloodbefore someone kills someone kills someone what would you learnlet melet me learn more than survival let me learnthat survival is everything said in a great voice wait! is that it really really fuck i am fucked. the middle we eat this journeyits about consuming againlifei came to myself within a dark wood here the direct waylost could i not possess a city with my own hands with my own desire do i lack everything the red sun rises & i saw you myself. nafanua! ferocious warrior! samoan mother! thank you for teaching me my power alofa! alofa! alofa!yet i am called away i dont want to goglittering glittering athena!this againi honor your maternal sinews every corpse in its placeundreamt melancholyunhealed will you let me return somedayto those volcanic waters one coin in one eye mouth filled with holy dirtthe harvest moon makes wine of our bloodi drink the spittle of some birdoffend the magnificent cowo magnificent cow so often i offend! o comrades! spread your netsin these woods i renounce my doubts holy holy holyi will not runo bright conflict i do want your body the dealshe is minei save heri am an eelimagining myself a rhinoceros a wild horse a sound soundingbronzehoofed gold mane golden thighs golden cunt dont speak to me of factsi am a beara godly bearthe world looks at me i allowhow vicious devotion among jackalsthat red gold hungeri consider all the words i know unprove them a pack of hunting dogs approach i stand open-armed Next page