Thistle or A Snakeskin Found

[Pompey Bum]

Thistle or A Snakeskin Found
by PB

I found your skin this morning, Lucifer,
Papery, dead, in a forest of fiddlehead fern.
You were there. You left it for me, turned
And twisted on a thistle's purple crown.
Such was the blossom you gave me once,
The one I loved until it spread and brought in
Every snapping, black-capped bird
And choked off sprigs that might have grown instead.
And there was nothing ever to be said
Nor thought nor done nor writ nor planned,
But only each stalk to be held in bleeding hands,
And like a loose skinned and indifferent man
To root each grasping bastard up
And cast it dead upon the land.
I found your skin today, old foe,
In a forest of fiddlehead fern.
And all I've ever wanted to know
Is where a child of God may turn.

[kiz_paws]

Thistle or A Snakeskin Found
by PB

I found your skin this morning, Lucifer,
Papery, dead, in a forest of fiddlehead fern.
You were there. You left it for me, turned
And twisted on a thistle's purple crown.
Such was the blossom you gave me once,
The one I loved until it spread and brought in
Every snapping, black-capped bird
And choked off sprigs that might have grown instead,
And there was nothing ever to be said
Nor thought nor done nor writ nor planned,
But only each stalk to be held in bleeding hands,
And like a loose skinned and indifferent man
To root each grasping bastard up
And cast it dead upon the land.
I found your skin today, old foe,
In a forest of fiddlehead fern.
And all I've ever wanted to know
Is where a child of God may turn.Very cool poem... I loved it.

[Pompey Bum]

Thanks Kiz. It seemed to turn people off. Or at least it didn't get the standard "loved it on so many levels" treatment. I'm sure I shouldn't be surprised. It's not a very lovable poem although it is a heartfelt one. Anyway, thanks for bothering. I knew I could count on you. :)

[tailor STATELY]

Howdy Pb !

Your poem scans well. Enjoyed the alliteration in L2 and repeated in the antepenultimate line; very dense with metaphor that I'm still trying to root out. The title helps a little. Re: your query - I know you have the answer already within... I hope your protagonist finds it.

An aside... As one with Scottish roots I was honored when a purple thistle appeared in a garden of mine. I watered it and let it grow among the plants and flowers only to have it destroyed by another (sigh) who saw it only as a weed.

Ta ! (short for tarradiddle),
tailor STATELY

[Pompey Bum]

Your poem scans well. Enjoyed the alliteration in L2 and repeated in the antepenultimate line; very dense with metaphor that I'm still trying to root out. The title helps a little. Re: your query - I know you have the answer already within... I hope your protagonist finds it.

Oh hello, tailor. Sorry to have missed this before. Thanks for taking the time to read my poem and comment on it. "Rooting out" the metaphor is a clever way of putting it. The poem was inspired by finding a real snakeskin in my backyard a few moments before I started writing. The protagonist is me, I'm afraid, reflecting on the sin, especially (pardon me) the sexual sin of my youth. The purple thistle (alluring but sharply hurtful and ultimately a trick) is the central metaphor. Uprooting the spread thistles represented is about trying to take responsibility for my life. And the newfound snakeskin is a kind of calling card left after all these years: I'm still here--don't think we've parted company. I was trying to express a kind of human lament about how some consequences can last a lifetime (this has been troubling me recently), but also to express a conviction that sins are ultimately beyond one's powers to remedy and must be brought to God. So the question at the end was weary but indeed rhetorical. I know the answer as well as you do. There are other little symbols and allusions in this poem, but that was my general idea.


An aside... As one with Scottish roots I was honored when a purple thistle appeared in a garden of mine. I watered it and let it grow among the plants and flowers only to have it destroyed by another (sigh) who saw it only as a weed.

Yes, sorry to have used the national emblem for such a dark metaphor. I but your friend was right. They spread past all expectation, and then they are a real problem (hence my figure of speech).

Thanks again for taking the time with this one. They can't all be Limericks. :)