Carla Drysdale
Dream
What if we could be happy?
Let the self live
its transgressive self
replace matrimony
with polyamory in body
& mind & law.
What if we adhered
to Oscar Wilde’s conviction:
pursue pleasure
as the highest ideal—
not ordeal?
Let the satyr seduce
the martyr within ourselves.
Let the lover’s hand or our own
roam while the sermon revs.
Live a happy, dangerous life—
be like the blue poles in Jackson
Pollack’s painting, standing tall,
held, yet leaning, ready to fall
in the magnificent swirling
chaos?
Carla Drysdale is the author of the poetry collections Little Venus (Tightrope Books, 2009) and Inheritance (Finishing Line Press, 2016). Her poems have appeared in Spiraling, Public Pool, Cleaver Magazine, PRISM International, The Same, LIT, Literary Review of Canada, Canadian Literature, The Fiddlehead, Global City Review, and Literary Mama, among other journals, and in the anthology Entering the Real World: VCCA Poets on Mt. San Angelo. In May, 2014 she was awarded PRISM’s annual Earle Birney poetry prize for her poem, “Inheritance.” Born in London, Ontario, she lives with her husband and two sons in Ornex, France. To learn more, visit www.carladrysdale.com.
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