LOVESICK HERON GRENADE SQUAWK-ROCK DOXOLOGY EPITHALAMIUM
heron (n.): from Proto-Indo-European *qriq-, perhaps imitative of its cry (compare Old Church Slavonic kriku “cry, scream,” Lithuanian kryksti “to shriek”)
The Heron pumps its hulking wings and
glides across the sky.
I would rather be full of gratitude
than all of this nailbomb shrapnel.
The slim piece of wood
sticking out of the river
explodes into a Heron.
We walked right up on it
like some wonderful beggar
asleep in the midst of the minefield.
What?
I was so close.
This close.
As close as you
are to me
right now.
(boom).
I drape my body over you and explode
into a Heron.
I want to get live
as a wire
on a blast jacket.
I want to get live
as a Heron grenade.
I want my fuse
enthused
with You!
I want to be the apple
of your IED
the smart phone
you upgrade into
a deaf
dumb
bomb
I want to spread my wings
against the sky in prayer
This poem is about having your face
blown off
in AWE
YAY-----
---ERRRRRR Thank you, Lover!
Thank you for pumping your wings through my sky!
Thank you for making my hard heart soft as a target!
(pump, pump, pump).
I fold my body over yours.
I absorb the blast and am blessed
with the verily lovesick scream that escapes me.
The verily one you hear begging this moment
whether it be the blast of my vocals or your heart.
Is there a difference?
I am Great. And I am Blue.
I'm prone to prostrate myself upon you
to dash myself upon the Rock of Love
To drink from the brook
of Your book and boom.
I spread my wings.
I don't have any
wings.
I realize this.
Mid
flight.
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NICK DEMSKE NICK DEMSKE lives in Racine, Wisconsin and works at the Racine Public Library. His self-titled manuscript was selected by Joyelle McSweeney for the 2010 Fence Modern Poets Series Award and was published by Fence Books. Nick was featured in 2011 as one of fifteen emerging poets to watch for by Poets and Writers magazine and his book was chosen as one of the 10 Best Books of Poetry in 2010 by a Believer Magazine reader survey. Nick curates the BONK! performance series in Racine and edits the online venue boo: a journal of terrific things. You can visit him online sometime at his blog nickipoo.wordpress.com
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Read two more Nick Demske poems in B O D Y