Monday, May 3, 2021

Melissa Eleftherion : Two poems

 

 

 

 

white phosphorus

 

 

white phosphorus                       soft and flammable

 

 

shoulder of purity                                 shoulder of privilege

 

 

the Greeks say “bringer of light”                                but that’s a definition I

 

 

          question as a source for colonialist thought

 

 

 

          whiteness always bringing the light like we’re saving Christmas and goodwill

 

 

          we shoulder our own damage

                     and watch it destroy whole populations

 

 

this myth of white goodness as pervasive

as a white knight black sheep

this lie as evasive as smoke

 

 

Ignite this veil of radiation this bestiary

of illuminations      whiteness

should not be a weapon

 

 

          I am phosphorus    an obscuring agent

 

          elemental vapor

 

a cloud wisp of chaos i am toxic

 

maelstrom of pretend

 

all                 we                are                          smoke

 

militarized ammunition

nature weaponized for combat

 

 

when i feel skin

i burn through it

my whiteness pervading all your cells

 

dominant, absorptive

smiling

like a sinister god

 

 

rose quartz

 

Aureole threshold

is totem

Three smooth vitreous points

 

Fibrous & generally stable in ultraviolet light

One is found or one finds oneself

 

Irradiation forms dusky hues

Rock crystal asterism

My terminal bud

 

In each hardness a prism or vein

A loathsome pustule

A bubblegum center

 

A dichroic future of bilateral symmetries

Our stars pulsing under the stone

 

 

 

 

Melissa Eleftherion is a cis queer human, a writer, a librarian, and a visual artist. She is the author of field guide to autobiography (The Operating System, 2018), & ten chapbooks, including trauma suture (above/ground press, 2020), & abalone (poems-for-all, 2021). Born & raised in Brooklyn, Melissa created, developed, and co-curates The Poetry Center Chapbook Exchange with Elise Ficarra. She now lives in Northern California where she manages the Ukiah Library, curates the LOBA Reading Series, and serves as the Poet Laureate of Ukiah 2021-2023. Recent work is available at www.apoetlibrarian.wordpress.com.