Redemption


You lower me into the quivering Mediterranean, 
your arms incandescent under the burn 
of the rising moon.

I am the Swan Princess, drawn back
from my feathered fate, Ophelia, 
resuscitated before the drowning was complete, 
Sitting Bull's first-born, immersed in my innocence
before the white man's promises were as broken arrows
along the littered Trail of Tears.

We lie on the beach after,
watch the sand glitter on bare skin,
lost gods, finding our way home.
You reach over and take my hand.
A dark swan of sorrow rises from my chest,
is drawn into the undecipherable night.


Pris Campbell
©2007





Art: Girl With One Eye Covered, by Didi Menendez
      copyrighted and used with permission

See more of Didi's fantastic art HERE, as well as ordering information for a few pieces.

 

Poem published in my chapbook, Hesitant Commitments, part of the Little Red Book series by Lummox Press



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