Empress I
The wind has stopped.
No jeweled throne in nature’s
yellow pall of sky, and I have
seen the river moving from me
like a lover I have not kissed yet,
who does not know I am here, reclined,
waiting for the cut-down rye to stop
blowing in the cloudless sky.
I have not found the wreath for my grave,
nor my way into the dark of pine forest
behind me. It calls me like the feral cries
of animals mating. I cannot turn my eyes.
I have searched for one open sound to surface
amid the quiet of my days, but not one visits me.
And I am left in the stillness of the air,
hoping something will make him turn back,
that he will come my way.
It only takes one.
…..
This poem is from the chapbook Painted Women in the Walls by Jenny Benjamin (Finishing Line Press), and can be found at https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/painted-women-in-the-walls-by-jenny-benjamin/
Painted Women in the Walls houses a multitude of women’s voices, from Sylivia Plath to Lizzie Siddel to women etched on Tarot cards. Within the walls, other characters, whose labels and roles shift, speak in lyrical lines about familial and romantic love, loss, mystery, injustice, and discovery. The poems, infused with internal rhymes, create a mosaic where fantasy, domesticity, and fable meet.
Jenny Benjamin is the owner of her freelance writing and editing business JB Communications, LLC. Over fifty of her poems have appeared in journals, including DIAGRAM, South Carolina Review, Fulcrum, Baltimore Review, Chelsea, and the Crab Orchard Review. Her first novel, This Most Amazing, was published in 2013 by Armida Books in Nicosia, Cyprus. Her poetry chapbook, More Than a Box of Crayons, was published by Finishing Line Press in February 2018. Her poetry chapbook, Midway, earned second place in the 2017 No Chair Press contest and was published in April 2018. Enhanced and Corrupted, the first two books of her young adult, science fiction trilogy were published by Ananke Press (October 2021, July 2022). Redeemed: Book Three of the Terrian Trilogy came out in January 2023. Her novel Heather Finch was published by Running Wild Press (June 2022). She lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
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