Cast into the pit, no more than a rusty
metal bowl
To deep to claw and scratch my way to
the top
My mind still sings her strangled
lyrics
The siren song of a thousand bleeding
orgasms
Bending fingernails until the yellowing
gelatin snaps
Using them to cut deep, dripping black
thoughts and paranoia
The result as desired, the odor of
stinking synapse wafts up
The smell of a need to reason for
release, he smells it
His smallish head appears at the top of
the pit…beaming
Roundish glasses, smart ass
intellect….prying
Clown like hair and caved in
chest….lonely
Smile at the corners of his thick and
drying lips….smacking
You have hit rock bottom my friend I
can no longer help you
He drops a mass of quivering flesh and
a bottle of Valium
Cry yourself to sleep, bathe in the
feces of a lack of self control
I am your Montresor and you show up in
jesters motley
I wipe the stew from my own
brow….stinking
My squarish not attractive jaw
line…clenching
The foulness of my hatred and bitter
thoughts….reeking
The salvation of a final
thought…triumphant
I stare at the sullied drainage grate
in the middle of the pit
And spit
I smile at my Montresor and squint
Eyes brimming
It seems that you are mistaken
But it happens to the best
I close my eyes and slip into smoke,
wisping down the grate
I had not hit rock bottom after all
So, there is still hope. Rock bottom is not a nice place to be at all but, if you do hit it then, the only way is up. This is powerful, dark and even a little scary in where the mind can take us and the demons it can conjor up, but the final stanza has hope.
ReplyDeleteFabulous imagery all through this.
I read this as the narrator's confrontation of a not so pleasant version of himself. As always you begin with guns blazing... (bleeding orgasms...Eek!bending fingernails...Ouch!)and the pace and barrage of images is relentless. Hard core, and Corey at his best.
ReplyDeleteThe words and images in this poem were vivid. Indeed a bit frightening, nightmarish...but it will stay with me a while!
ReplyDeleteA chilling and dark rock bottom ~ Kerry got some of my images so the second stanza was very vivid for me ~
ReplyDeleteI am still awaiting the music link of song #3 :-)
Happy Monday ~
Powerful writing which made my fingernails ache in sympathy! Wow, your pen is mighty, kiddo!
ReplyDeletenow thats more like it your true voice! signature stuff...a whole lot of edgy with a individual voice that refuses to fade amidst all the filth and grime.dig on!
ReplyDeleteI got lost and found and got to the end and smiled. It was a grime smile and one of knowing, but a smile all the same.
ReplyDelete'I am your Montresor and you show up in jesters motley'
ReplyDeletethat's a hell of a line, corey. and a hell of a poem. in every sense. the victim here is more than the avenger bargained for. a clash of selves as kerry posited, seems fitting. but one in which the strength is with both sides.
this feels like a close call, where both sides curse their luck and dress their wounds and plot their next go.
Your work always has this gritty feel, a realism borne of the border between an ordinary life, and extraordinary situations.
ReplyDeleteWay to totally smear the reader with imagery so intense it demands rereading, ingesting, chewing and spitting out, and finally, identification of just exactly that spot where the bricks are sitting, ready to be mortared in..the opening line sews up the idea of a self-made hell and flings it out there with the immediacy of a slap in the rest of the stanza, then the warring sides of the argument, each line embodying the fall, the fight--dropping 'a mass of quivering flesh and Valium,' the gloating naysayer, and then, the finger in the face of Fate--or so I read it--lovin the Poe reference, and the whole dark heart of this one, Corey. Fine work.
ReplyDeletePowerful, this piece evoked an "Oh shit, I've been in the presence of these characters before..." response. Any one who has been or has loved an addict will relate to the bottomless pit before one hits bottom; will feel the explosion of emotion that ultimately settles to dust.
ReplyDeleteThoroughly enjoyed this, nuff said :)
ReplyDeleteWow, so many amazing quivering images flooded my brain! The nails, the black thoughts dripping...and the quivering flesh!
ReplyDeleteI too felt a Poe type of presence in your words! Stunning stuff, raw n' really good!
You really hit hard with your words...there is not sugar coating. I love it! Too often we are fed the Reader's Digest version...your hard hitting honesty is much appreciated.
ReplyDelete