No Cut-Throat Rose, by Kerry O’Connor

Woman with Long Hair, photography by Man Ray (USA). 1929.

No Cut-Throat Rose

This love is no rose
throat cut
bleeding sap from severed stem
and every thorn peeled away.

This love brooks no sentiment
but dark humour
collusion
a symbiosis of intelligent lust
to aid in decomposition.

This love is not written
on the moon
reeking of rhymed verse
and objectification.

This love stifles every word
that tries to speak itself
into being
no need to justify the intimate
pulse, the hungry lips.

This love is neither
truth nor
falsity, no illusory song
for fools to dance to.

I give you this love
as a stranger might hand
a dying man
a drink of water at his place
of execution. A matter of instinct.

Kerry O’Connor
​
Kerry O’Connor is the Creative Manager of a communal blog, imaginary garden with real toads, a group project which provides a forum for on-line poets. Her poetry is to be found on the Skylover blogsite, and several pieces have appeared in the online publications:  Nice Cage, Verse Wrights and Visual Verse. During working hours, Kerry is to be found in a South African high school, teaching English as a first and second language.