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On Being Corso’s Lover

Jacqueline Kirkpatrick

On Being Corso's Lover by Jacqueline Kirkpatrick

In the Cadillac of my imagination
unraveling in Corso’s kitchen
we eat verses of Homer for lunch.

He becomes my Odysseus.

My fingers are burnt and veins tapped.
Our highs grow weary
as we strum down fateful guitars.

Black curls on blond curls
while I imagine Degas would paint us both ballerinas.
His strong calves curl raw around my dirty sheets,
as I mount his black tar heart.

When he weeps, I’ll weep.

In a garden I’ve grown,
he comes to me.

He lays down and
burrows into my strange earth.

His roots go so deep,
almost to the other side of Lesbos
and wrap carefully around my throat.

The branch of our unholy joining
rains down the wrong unto
rows of vegetation,
rows of desperation,
rows of “come with me child
I’ll find you a home among these constellations.”

Jacqueline Kirkpatrick

Jacqueline is a writer, reader, mother, and daydreamer. She is currently an MFA in Creative Writing student at The College of Saint Rose.

Author: Jacqueline Kirkpatrick Tags: Beat Generation, Gregory Corso, iu, poetry Category: Poetry September 12, 2013

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Empty Mirror

Established in 2000 and edited by Denise Enck, Empty Mirror is an online literary magazine that publishes new work each Friday.

Each week EM features several poems each by one or two poets; reviews; critical essays; visual art; and personal essays.

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