Tonight's Poet Corner: Analogies

Analogies
by Belinda Roddie

You left fingerprints
all over the mountains
of my body - every crack,
cliff, and crest, every raised
fear and freckle, every spark
of a spat, the tripped tongue,
the arched eyebrow, the teeth-
scratched lower lip - scratch out
the memory, scratch out the eyes

(Oedipus could've have

performed it better)

How much hot water do I need
to wash away your artificial
sweetness? And if soap doesn't
work, will blood do the trick?
And if the blood is stale, what
will I drink to stave off your
ghosts and your goblins, creeping
behind the bathroom door?

You kiss pages of Scripture
without their consent and remark
that my etchings bring me closer
to Christ, when really, I'm expunging
myself of the Holy Spirit and His
creeping digits across my collarbone

I see right through you, Pharisee:

It's like dipping your hand
into a fragile jar of honey
and pulling out a gun.