The golden orb has brought a blooming heat
We have something to celebrate, you're glowing!
We bear fruits that are wrapped all sweet
The summer solstice gathers our family, sowing
Cherry blossoms and lilies bloomed
Water once icy now sparkles vibrant blue-greens
Skin flushed, baby hairs sun kissed golden, dubloon'd
Endless summer is upon us, sealed with the laughter of teens
Greenery wrapped around the pole with wreaths
Sticky fingers from strawberries 'n milk glossed with sugar
Army of children thick as thieves cartwheel with rolled up sleeves
Scuffed feet wander through tall reeds to where minds wander far
It's just a game this dance of The Little Frogs
Dizzy, we play pretend and gather in a family circle
We'll run away to the sauna in Mormor's clogs
Potent lust leaves a musk, the soil here is fertile
Cleanse your soul and you'll be peachy keen
Steam your sins like toxins as flesh flames rosy
Moonlight bathing splash a shimmering scene
I bask in your warmth, in the dark, feeling the current below sea
Ode, 9.3.22.
I must confess,
Your voice booms in my mind
every promise ripples in my temples
Forever, I fear that bass will dance in my thighs
Lingering embraces compel the voltage to amplify
Spritzes of glamor
on your soft neck, purple veins
distract from the gems on your hands
I envy the rings perched on every finger
I beg you. Come here
sooner, I ache in your absence.
when you hold her gaze, intimately
my heart is scorched in boiled water
Don't you feel the heat my eyes convey?
destructive pressure rises, fiery bubbles burst
from my eyes, so I hide away
Into the night, my boudoir becomes
a mirage of fantastical erotic display
Spritzes of glamor call on thee
Enchantress, I beg you!
My throat burns— as pulsation fades
Open my heart with your
Hands, circle this throat!
Imprint your deadly claws
In my unworthy chest
Give me, something
Bewitching, sweeten my sentence
Enchantress, show me your glory
or give me death!
Freeform, 9.5.22.
I mourn the curls that could've been
I mourn the curls that could've been here
The curls that were unapologetically
Coiled. Tight. Swirled, and raised
to the sun, they didn't halt to salute
my ancestors with a textured crown
that was beaten to submission
by my own two hands
White faces were my only mirror for so long
I did what I could to match them
setting fire to my mane, I roared
In pain, ears hot and fingers supple
My crown is matted, the jewels robbed
Will my curls ever be the same?
Elegy, 2.3.22.
It will only hurt a little, he said (he said)
rough house lil mouse
and I’ll hit you on the head
Smack me once more, I will chase you round this house
I was just playing! He exclaimed
Cruel clowns make me cry
Abbadon envies our tug of war, in flames
I’m a trembling shell but you continue to pry
He defaces my flesh and calls me dirty names
Rubber burns struggling to balance shaft
Why are you whining? It’s just a game
Declaring war, this was my draft
Shadow hands keep crescents the size of finger nails
in my curves with bruises and scratches
I can no longer choke back wails
My skin is tender, in purple patches
*
It will only hurt a little, she said (she said)
I seduce you with chains, tied you to the bed
Siren’s curtain call, I’m a daydream to dread
Make you swallow my load with a drop a lead
It was so hard, tracking down this silver vile
I had it stitched into your favorite bra
I was hoping you’d finally show me that pretty smile
I might fuck up that gaze with a candelabra
Soak in that venom, gurgle on gasoline
Feel my pain rumble like an earthquake
As I trampoline on your spleen
Soon he’ll lie like a frosty steak
It will only hurt a little, she said (she said)
I seduced you with chains, tied you to the bed
Siren’s curtain call, I’m a daydream to dread
Make you swallow my load with a drop a lead
*
The cops came round when the stench overthrew
With no flashy check, had no defense
Locked up in jail, disappointment is all I knew
It took months to convince trial but to them it made sense
That lil mouse had him bounce, or she didn't stand a chance
Life sentence! With penance! Or slap on the wrist?
So I pleaded my case of the household war, hence
his mortal exit so he couldn't persist
But the jury shuddered to my emotional dance
psychotic eyes and unkept face was only how I exist
My trauma was just a ruse, a selfish pretense
I was dirty, soiled, a societal cyst
It will only hurt a little, they said.
Another murder occurred on the twelfth of August
As I was ushered to lifetime, a godless carcass
All because of a man's unbridled lust
I now must join the ghost circus
For my finalé, I take a drop of lead
Murder ballad, 31.3.22
In every store, the lights stay on all the time, to scare off crime
In every home, the kids are glued to a TV or smartphone
Every morning, is another shopping spree, haul or expression of gluttony
The ether keeps us fed, but only temporarily
A nation of zombies without substance, they yearn for flesh
Paying others to package rotting animals
They sell us muscle so we haunt gyms to have their standards met
As we sprint away our nub, we throw away another coffee paper mug
Our true form is unknown. We constantly fight to find it.
Sacred burial ground is again overthrown, shopping malls erected to bury us
in hunger, we engorge on illusions of culture and with debt we feast on living
in overpriced studios, a landlord hacks at our meat and butchers it as he pleases
Scientists say there is a cure, though it requires great cooperation to complete
If we face the data and read their findings, we too can see
The very answers to our prayers stare back at thee
The river of gluttony leads to a wave of unforgiving sea
If we continue our ways, the sea will feed too
On our greed, hoarding and lack of accountability
Mother nature requires balance for our debt to receive a plea
So she locked us at home, into a virus quarantine
As we chilled our travels, the waters brightened blue
As we seized our spending, the infection renewed
Vampires appeared in the suits of respectable men
Chasing votes and fame they filled us with mortal dread
We pleaded for freedom and liberation
But they had in plan another libation
To again worship the Pig, politicians served a global roasting spit
Experts say there is a cure, though it requires great cooperation to complete
If we face the facts and the global climate, we too can see
The very answers to our prayers stare back at thee
The river of gluttony leads to a wave of unforgiving sea
If we continue our ways, the sea will charge a fee
On a day just like today, billions will wake up in the morning
But on this day, they will be horrified to see
New borders of water drowned out the neighbors with no forewarning
There is no time left or no way to be freed
Of the rapture of souls that plagues the ether
As the water closes in deeper and deeper
Protest poem, 27.4.22
Shelby Edlund ® • 66 Fifth Avenue • New York, New York • (929)-832-0701