What Rough Beast | Poem for January 12, 2018

Devon Balwit
The Force Needed to Escape Orbit

…the bridegroom arrives
Lord of the mirrors!
It is himself he guides

In among these silk
Screens, these rustling appurtenances.
—Sylvia Plath

You’ve met
his ilk, the type
who asks questions

only he
can answer,
you, an ear,

a megaphone, a pump
to inflate
the limp cock

of self-regard.
Respond or don’t,
it’s the same

to him. All
he needs is a mute
cliff for an echo.

Move,
and you will see
him turn,

heliotropic,
seeking a new face
for his heat.

To watch him
spin about so
staggers.

 

Devon Balwit is a writer/teacher from Portland, Oregon. Her poems of protest have appeared previously in What Rough Beast as well as in The New Verse News, Poets Reading the News, RattleRedbird Weekly Reads, Rise-Up Review, Rat’s Ass Review, The Rising Phoenix Review, Mobius, and more.

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