Jane Flett

SCHMERZY

Lugubrious as a kiss in your best sweater.
I wake dull and blood-blocked, a melancholic pop tart.
Sunk like a witch in the dent of the bed.

Easter has gone to sulk. The eggs all rank.
Candied rabbits revolting, and me
too thick to hack the breakfast mangroves.

Me: a puddle of black bile on the floor.
My moustache droop and curdled sausage.
Just another humdrum malady.

Let’s take my sad and dress her up in cowbells.
Parade my sad for shame, the fool
looks better with eggshells in her hair.

Give her a new appellation, Weltschmerz.
Schmerzy for short, let’s paint her
rouge and prank and rabble-rouser.

Hot underfoot makes Schmerzy dance.
Little witch-pig, I like her better
in smouldered petticoat and panic.

That acerbic frenzy. That terror zest.
I began this poem with a kiss in the hope
I could end it laughing.

The happy clash of teeth and nincompoop.
The happenstance if both of us end up there.

IN THE DAYS BEFORE QUARANTINE

The stock market is astrology for men
& I am touching my face. My face
knows it’s a botched destination but
my face still believes in cherry blossom
in the particular sprung sweetness
of mochi       in the need for a break.
Forgive my face whose greatest crime
was the cold glass burble of a fresh stream
in June & by that I mean temptation
so quick fingers don’t stand a chance.
This could be their final holiday, a last
hurrah. & who can blame them?
A week goes by. The calendar sheds
days as moth dust. Good morning the economy
is in retrograde & my face has announced
a closure of borders. The news
delivered in a red envelope that
never crossed the threshold. My body
flocks home to itself. A choked arrival
lounge, passengers weeping. My face
issues a global apology for taking so long
but have you never wanted to believe so bad
you conjured reality itself? A silk scarf
from a black sleeve & a giddy prison break
before quarantine & tonight the stocks
began to drop. A meteor shower streaked
the sky, a silver riptide. That sinking gold.
Hush now, let’s sit together & watch them fall.