Wednesday, April 2, 2014

From the Vaults: Beast Touched

I haven't posted anything in a while, let's just say life has been difficult.

Anyway, I was digging through some previously published poems and thought I'd just put one up here. Beast Touched was first published in Silver Blade Magazine and inspired by the fairy tale Beauty and the Beast.

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Beast Touched

By Alexandra Seidel


The beast
killed all the beauty in her.
It was a touch at first--
mottled feelings, shady
mangrove places
of the soul as deep

as they are wet…and thirsty.
First, she whimpered,
then she groaned
and from the beast's touch
sprang desire
shedding innocent skin

with the leisure
of a serpent. Bursting
as pomegranates, her lips
were torn asunder,
and his tongue dug wells
into her eyes,

at first gently,
then less, and less.
All who knew her
before her belly swelled,
before her mind
became focused

on his voice,
on his whims,
said that the beast
had killed all
the beauty in her;
they said

she had shed
her skin
like any common serpent.
At first, though,
it was just
a touch.

File:Crane beauty5.jpg