Righteous

[Leanne]

In dulcet tones she preaches from the pews.
She builds a bridge of fairytales and lace
and dreams a troll beneath it; on her face
are lips that smile and lips that pout: two sets.
While one may cozen, watch its twin accuse
and then deny the words so any trace
is nothing more than memory, a space
where questions grow, and so do epithets.
 
Her world is sand and sugar; any threats
of storms are met with trembles and retreat
but only from the torso, while her feet
dig deeper in with stylish pirouettes.
 
A spiral with no anchor is a line
that draws itself apart, in swift decline.

[kolemath]

In dulcet tones she preaches from the pews. Great image of complacency
She builds a bridge of fairytales and lace
and dreams a troll beneath it; on her face many religious problems are made up
are lips that smile and lips that pout: two sets. Two faced, lipped rathet
While one may cozen, watch its twin accuse
and then deny the words so any trace
is nothing more than memory, a space Donald Trump..sorry this isnt political..a space is a bit unclear, though it fits with trace nicely

where questions grow, and so do epithets. 
Her world is sand and sugar; any threats
of storms are met with trembles and retreat
but only from the torso, while her feet
dig deeper in with stylish pirouettes. Following the crowd despite instinct not to

 
 
A spiral with no anchor is a line 
that draws itself apart, in swift decline. Here's a line to chew on. We feet in s2 are anchoring the character to complacency and crowd following, so I have some trouble there..a line that draws itself apart is brilliant, split intentions or personalities

Great poem

[RiverNotch]

In dulcet tones she preaches from the pews. A deaconness. 
She builds a bridge of fairytales and lace Of arsenic and lace, more like.
and dreams a troll beneath it; on her face Oh, there's the poison.
are lips that smile and lips that pout: two sets. I do love this Janusian image going on.
While one may cozen, watch its twin accuse I had to look up cozen, but that wasn't really an issue -- I got the point even without.
and then deny the words so any trace
is nothing more than memory, a space
where questions grow, and so do epithets. Yeah, memories of stank (however false) usually lead to much worse shit than actual stank -- see basically any election season anywhere ever. I think the memory centers are directly tied to a person's emotion and decision making centers? but I'm no psychologist.
 
Her world is sand and sugar; any threats I suppose a mixture of sand and sugar can be hard to unmix --- well, unless you have copious amounts of warm water, since sand is insoluble.
of storms are met with trembles and retreat I mean, again, with these storms.....and you'll end up only with sand. Of course --- lovely.
but only from the torso, while her feet
dig deeper in with stylish pirouettes. And now I'm imagining Pearl (a character from another animated series I like) dancing around and junk. Again, lovely (and she was quite passive-aggressive in her 'youth', so I suppose it works).
 
A spiral with no anchor is a line
that draws itself apart, in swift decline. Ooh, dense couplet! Let's see....she pirouettes, she pirouettes, she sinks, she sinks, she breaks? Or perhaps it's a centrifugation thing....but literally, someone so passive-aggressive should ultimately end up identity-less, I think.

Lovely, lovely, lovely work, and very much capable of being read multiple ways. A fun, though not entirely accurate, way to read this is as a Clinton critique. 

[Leanne]

Hi guys, many thanks for stopping by with such great comments. If you want to read it as a political poem, I'm ok with that but in truth I really don't waste words on US politics -- I'd much prefer to write about disemboweling bunnies.

Stay tuned for the next installment, in which Bugs faces vivisection...

I really enjoyed both of your interpretations, greatly appreciated, thank you.

[billy]

you do the sonnet form so well and the content is excellent. that said i'm not sure of the scheme you're using in this one. [but it works really well]

i'm caught in two minds with the poem. on one hand i'm minded of a fairy-tale such as cinderella, but on the other and yjis is the one that works best for me is a real life relationship. the duality of good and not so good is very evident and is done in a way. i get the impression of a very strong woman who know when and how to submit without submitting. probably makes no sense but it's how i viewed it. no critical feedback. the couplet is almost magical

In dulcet tones she preaches from the pews.
She builds a bridge of fairytales and lace
and dreams a troll beneath it; on her face
are lips that smile and lips that pout: two sets.
While one may cozen, watch its twin accuse
and then deny the words so any trace
is nothing more than memory, a space
where questions grow, and so do epithets.
 
Her world is sand and sugar; any threats
of storms are met with trembles and retreat
but only from the torso, while her feet
dig deeper in with stylish pirouettes.
 
A spiral with no anchor is a line
that draws itself apart, in swift decline.

[Leanne]

Thanks billy - it's less a sonnet than the first stand of a canzone that ran out of steam It more or less just finished itself off, wiped itself down and got on with its life...

[ellajam]

I didn't read this as specifically political at all, for me it describes any drama queen, the unhappy people who act all buddy-buddy as they pull each person around them into their insane little fantasy. It often becomes their version of the truth and they crash pretty hard when all the players around them eventually realize they've been nothing more than the cards in the building an empty, fragile house bound to collapse.

A good poet could write a poem instead of a comment. Oh wait, she did.

An intricate and fun poem that holds with each repeated read, glad you posted it.

[rayheinrich]

Such an unequivocal poem, almost to the point of being obvious -- and a different one of those every time I read it.

(Not to mention how wonderful it feels when I move my lips.)