Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Jambalaya


painting borrowed from bing

Jambalaya

Tucker was holding her finally,
after the dearth of clues had led him
in mad circular patterns, a man in
a maze tearing at his uniform, oblivious
to the Creole de rigueur, his weeping
finally ebbing as he stared at her,

reduced to a double handful of pasty black
char, her bright anima already fled on silver
wax-wings, with tepid marsh gases busily
percolating over his steel-toed boot tops
he painfully bent over to retrieve a loop
of white lace once worn on her swan neck;

August in the deep swamp, cottonmouths
uncoiling brazenly on damp low limbs,
behemoth gaters croaking a terrible
reptilian sonata, its timbre chilling,
the fiery air thick with the acidic pungency
of skunk cabbage as he placed his sad
lips deep into the sticky char, zestfully
kissing the frailest memory of his
lost Cajun love.

Glenn Buttkus

January 2011

Listed as #11 over on Monday Melting-Week 2

Would you like to hear the author read this poem to you?

7 comments:

Laurie Kolp said...

Oh this is so sad... but amazing imagery and great use of so many of those challenging words.

Anonymous said...

This contains parts of the previously posted poem "Dearth of Reason", was that intentional?

Anonymous said...

The third verse is excellent

Anonymous said...

Glenn, I'm so glad you decided to participate in this week's prompt! You did an amazing job. The title is SO perfect, so many spicy flavorites poured into this dish. :)

These are my favorite words:

"dearth of clues had led him
in mad circular patterns"

"bright anima already fled on silver
wax-wings"

"a loop of white lace once worn on her swan neck" ... although, I think I might say "swanlike neck" to add a bit more /l/ to the alliteration party here

"uncoiling brazenly on damp low limbs"

"skunk cabbage" ... what a creative ingredient!

"kissing the frailest memory of his
lost Cajun love" ... what a lovely closing, albeit sad

~Shawna
rosemarymint.wordpress.com

Anonymous said...

Anonymous ... you're seeing the repetition of certain words because we both participated in a writing prompt requiring the use of words from a given list. We'd love for you to join us. It's not too late to respond to this week's prompt:

http://rosemarymint.wordpress.com/2012/01/16/monday-melting-week-2/

Or you can check in at rosemarymint.wordpress.com on Monday to get next week's words.

~Shawna

Anonymous said...

Thank you for the clarification, Shawna.

Yours and Glen's = excellent

Anne Katherine said...

Great job with the prompt. The imagery and mood very well done. Definitely feels like a very southern poem!