- Erotic Poetry
- Salome
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I served
as Ishtar’s priestess, healed
the hearts of warriors. I won kings and craftsmen
purified them with my bright fire and danced
to invoke Her.
Upstarts, revolutionaries
surrounded the gentle prophet
already a helpless tool in their hands:
those who called us temple prostitutes, ordered us
to bind up our hair and be silent.
For myself, I loved the quiet carpenter, poor
unwitting puppet, too full of his Father
to see that for his own sake
they would burn us for two thousand years.
I saw it all: the sexless priests, the rape
of the good Earth, the conquest of her children,
the twisting of her body. I saw the frightened virgins, kept dumb
and trapped in snow. In the eyes
of the madman John was my own death, the death
of Ishtar, of all of us.
I knew I’d be despised, that I’d be no more
than the whore of history.
I stood against a tide of millions.
I danced for our lives.
I did what I could.
- COMMENTS
KOLKOREalmost 17 years agoOne way or another I don't even know if the title actualy fits this poem. I am touched and somewhat depressed by the paralel narrative which goes on now one in the poem the silencing of the female spiritual voice in the name of a male revulution (both christianity and Judaism and later on Islam betrayed the women big time as they moved to more and more extreme forms of patriarchy and chovinism. The other is in places like Pakistan and Afganistan (not to mention Saudiaa Arabia and other 'enlightened' holding places for women. The former is particularly depressing, as there seems to be a counter liberation or anew subjucation of women -all in the name of God, not man, of course...
Bill Dadaalmost 17 years agoExcellent doesn't even begin to describe this poem. I am just sitting here amazed, I can barely type.
Angelinealmost 17 years agoIt's a well-written poem and a riveting read. You're good! Hope you'll consider sharing some of your technique or just posting at the poetry forum.
Recommended in today's new poems reviews in the poetry feedback and discussion forum. Thanks for the read.
Angeline
