Lady Lazar

Angst written in my early twenties...

Lady Lazar
 
And there is a charge,
a very large charge
for a word or a touch, or
a bit of blood.

-Sylvia Plath, 'Lady Lazarus'.
 
My shelves filmed with dust as an old man's eyes
and papers jaundiced as a sybil's skin,
my palsied hand to euthanize
ragged thoughts and rash replies
wherever they begin
 
I excise myself, the pen
now beaded red as blood upon the page,
and gauge my diction
as the growth of a disease,
with violent ease, I cut it out, each riddling doubt
now scalpeled scarlet, make a harlot-handed scripture
to coax coitus from your eyes, and then,
no surprise--I pass this on,
this blight to your vision be a lesion on faith.
 
Saith that God:
look not lusty at a woman with thy eyes.
The writer's craft lies with the exhibitionist.
Baring your burdens, you both defy
decency and common sense.
Still repentance neither conceives.