A Binding Love
#5
(08-18-2015, 11:00 PM)tectak Wrote:  Fear brought me here; he binds my hands, my chest, my thoughts. -- the use of "he" brings wonderful personification that is carried throughout the poem, blending the partner and the fear into one
The man who shares me holds  the cords that tighten,
choke and keep me tied; but who am I? My soul, a broken glaze -- strong sonics here, particularly with the alliterative "t" and "s/z" and the assonant "i" 
on  dull and blood-crazed sunken eyes, I do not recognise.

If ever light was bright enough for you to glance in guilt
upon my face (whilst in your  lustful, thrusting throws),
or if I cried because my breasts were aching,
or if I screamed because you tore those parts of me -- it's tempting to suggest you remove "if I" from this line, for the sake of the rhythm
where tender touch should float me into warming sea -- bit of a meter hiccup in this line, where "into" disrupts -- I'd suggest "float me through a warming sea" instead
of gentle waves...would you then think you loved me? -- reading this stanza aloud is particularly effective -- the line breaks are perfect as they allow both lengthy musing and a bit of an abrupt spit of bitterness

It is too late. I have no secret places anymore. 
If in some darkened, piss-filled room (where you, too, are unknown),
you hear my given name; then ask for me. I will be here. -- "given name" is powerful -- not even this is hers by right, but has been gifted her like a trinket -- for a woman, a name is a conflicting thing.  The surname marks ownership by the father first, then the husband, but the given name is worthless without it for every agency or place of power.
I do not know what I have left to sell or what you want from me.
The fear that binds me shivers and confines me...
but you are free to think that you are loved. -- the shift of address and tone here gives the poem a clear volta, almost as if spoken by a different person -- and this is where the authenticity of your writing comes through the strongest, as you clearly "get" what's happening in the mind of the victim.  For the record, this is the same or similar mindset for sex workers as it is for women in marriages/ domestic relationships -- the only real difference is the duration of the experience.  

Extract from report "Sex Markets on Teesside, 2013" Commissioned by Northern Rock Foundation.
"For example, one agency said of a client “she would get beaten up regularly”, another said “there is always reports of violence, like sex workers being strangled, left for dead, in a coma for three weeks”. "

tectak2015
It could be worse
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Messages In This Thread
A Binding Love - by tectak - 08-18-2015, 11:00 PM
RE: A Binding Love - by ChristopherSea - 08-19-2015, 08:10 AM
RE: A Binding Love - by sunilmathur - 08-19-2015, 08:25 PM
RE: A Binding Love - by tectak - 08-19-2015, 09:19 PM
RE: A Binding Love - by Leanne - 08-20-2015, 05:23 AM
RE: A Binding Love - by tectak - 08-20-2015, 05:31 PM
RE: A Binding Love - by isabelhershko - 09-05-2015, 02:44 AM
RE: A Binding Love - by tectak - 09-11-2015, 06:25 PM



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