The Scream, by Deborah DeNicola

The Scream, woodcut print by Edvard Munch (Norway). 1895.

The Scream

The sky leaks it first.
Then we’re pulled to the oily drift
of the bridge to see where it ends.

If it ends. Pulled
To the figure in the foreground
both less and more than human

holding forever in his hands
both his ears in a view
that will never be over--

So infinite is it.
One raining pitch, a twisted
splicing of lines, clogged

both less and more
in the pipes of the sky
than the dim canals of the ears.

How it bends and winds
the continuing
etched pen and ink, drilling

the runnels of rough
and worn wooden slats
Underneath

with the depth of enduring
inception luring us
further and further in

to the silent camp of the deaf
where the railing of inner liquids
runs in elliptical rivulets--

transfusions
embalming the brain
pumping a skeletal premonition

through the facial bones of this gnome
whose hands, upon staring
become two pinned wings, two

symmetrical slabs of marble
framing the face
like the hair of a woman--

So that now it is lion,
serpent, bird--
the shared eye and ear

of the inhuman, wild
with nightmare
sustained

in the shadowed
couple
arm in arm

in the tiny background--
calm as the cloud of lake
while ribs of the sky

quietly starve
in testament to the steeple
riding its fading spine

to the edge of the cliff
gliding and ringing
both beneath

and above the bridge
singing and singing
a gorgon’s lullabye.

Deborah DeNicola

This poem was previously published in Where Divinity Begins, by Deborah DeNicola from Alice James Books.

Deborah DeNicola is the author of two collections of poetry, most recently, Original Human, 2010 from Word Tech, Where Divinity Begins from Alice James Books, four chapbooks, and her memoir,
The Future That Brought Her Here from NicholasHays 2009. She edited Orpheus & Company; Contemporary Poems on Greek Mythology (UPNE.) An adjunct professor, and editor, DeNicola
received The Carpe Articulum Award in 2010, Briar Cliff Poetry Award, 2007, the Santa Barbara Poetry Award, 2008 and The Paul Hoover Critical Essay Award from Packingtown Review, 2009. She is the recipient of an artist’s fellowship from the NEA. Her web site is www.intuitivegateways.com.