Assia

from Bitter Fruit by Jodie Oakes

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Bitter Fruit (Chapbook)
24 page, A5 chapbook.

Poetry by Jodie Oakes.

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lyrics

Assia

a whimper crept
When you lay on her bed
Wrapped in the shroud
Of cold death

A voice that flattered
Then faltered
In a room
Where the ghost
Of a gramophone played
A dead hare
A bloody rose

The tapestry unfinished
Lingered in your memory
The needle stuck in
A wound of cotton
Unspooling
Later it was
A blade of grass
Staining the fingertips
Before being trampled
Underfoot.

During sex he stank
Like a butcher
Metallic, murderous
A feast for crows
(Or the albatross,)
That noose
Around his neck

You opened the door
And the nightmares fell in
Somehow despite the spritz
Of Dior and warm milk mingling
The trace of gas
Had left its mark
Atoms colliding
A flicker
A spark

Your thumbprint
Found her papers
Gorged and fat
Frightened
By words
One child dribbled out
And this time
It was blood that stained
The sheets
As though she had taken
A razorblade
The oven left cold.
Forced to wear
Her widows’ sack

You held her knife
Between your fingers
Your throat a huge
And growing wound
You swallowed the house
You swallowed him
You choked on her
That blinding shadow
Lodged in your esophagus

The taps of a mayflower cooker
Bloomed ferociously
A whisper of spring once more
You went one higher
The fumes stronger
And your little one
A ragdoll
Forgotten on the floor

They found your signature
And finally
The hand was steady
Not a tremor