04-16-2016, 02:14 PM
The house of palinode
The house of woman, a plate glass skyscraper
taller than the rest of the city towers, stands
between the river and the open lake.
Women move behind windows, making
the future world from their bodies while
around them vines and roses, glowing lights
sing of home and hearth, of kin and love.
Lightning flashes from pregnant clouds,
waves reach up for the wind from the water
and eyes soft as mothers’ watch from the dark
as the crimson secret that keeps breasts pure
falls as flakes of snow. The crescent moon
holds the world to come between its horns,
with the promise of the house of woman.
The house of woman, a plate glass skyscraper
taller than the rest of the city towers, stands
between the river and the open lake.
Women move behind windows, making
the future world from their bodies while
around them vines and roses, glowing lights
sing of home and hearth, of kin and love.
Lightning flashes from pregnant clouds,
waves reach up for the wind from the water
and eyes soft as mothers’ watch from the dark
as the crimson secret that keeps breasts pure
falls as flakes of snow. The crescent moon
holds the world to come between its horns,
with the promise of the house of woman.