Poetry
The Dance Has Begun
There’s a fish
right there
twisting and turning
wrapping itself
around and around
with red lacey frills
looking for a partner
in the vast ocean
There are the jellyfish—
flashing their neon dance-floor colors
the fish swirling its dress in response
swirling faster
faster
they court each other
There, the jellyfish drift
through the water
with their own partners
a disorganized courtly affair
of tangled tentacles
and the flash of fishy skirts
There, the ocean shifts from teal
to deep sapphire blue
they dance
until their fins become frenzied
with exhaustion
it’s time to feast
to take your partner
down to the depths
to do what fishy lovers do
*Inspired by Frank Stella's Feneralia*
Carnal Rhythm
the best gift is a beating heart
both your own and one to eat
this is Joy, exalted in the bittersweet
the opposite result of un-pleasant desire
eat, spit, sip, twist the grapevine—here
drink—sweet nectar of our labors
our embrace would be that of lovers
if not for the knives we trace
across each other’s backs
sweat stuck to me
like strawberries on my tongue
You are the same side of the coin
You are a mirror that only looks out
You are the end
and the beginning
a full unbroken circle
so long as we are stained in blood-wine
wood splinters soaking our fingers
I would bury the world for You
to see the feral smile on your mouth
flesh meeting flesh— the delicious tremble
of another kill.
Published in the 2020 WSU Landescapes literary Journal
Death of a Lemon
Cutting this lemon in half, my fingers sting
and burn, and my eyes fill with salty rain.
Rubbing it away makes it worse
I cry out.
I stumble to that cool porcelain pond
where humans, as gods, control the waterfall
I cool my hands and eyes
I am better.
But that cursed lemon,
wounded but not defeated,
mocks me from its deathblock.
I pull out the vengeful knife and
extract the lemon's stinging blood.
Working quickly, I add sugar and water,
forcing it into sweetness.
And I am content
| *About writing The Dance Has Begun And Ekphrastic Poetry* I first stumbled across the art that inspired this poem while looking for something to write about after a somewhat disappointing freewrite session. The bright pops of color that artist Frank Stella used in Feneralia were what first drew me to the work. I knew right away that it was an abstract piece and that it might be a little more difficult to write a poem about it. But as I looked at the piece and its red netted sections, it began to remind me of ocean life and I began to see jellyfish in the center and the left corner of the piece and a red, elegant fish in the center. This then led me to imagine what this sea life would be doing as they floated along, and I constructed a narrative around that. I really enjoy what I ended up with, it reminds me of a nature documentary. | *Review in WSU’s LandEscapes Literary Journal for Death of a Lemon* “Death of a Lemon” by Nora Loney is a marvelous display of humor in poetry. Taking apart one woman’s struggle to cut a lemon, Loney is able to show how mundane tasks can be hyperbolized to create a fun, eccentric narrative. The metaphors of both the water and lemonade help the theme materialize before the readers eyes. One could read Death of a Lemon and come away unscathed, while being greeted with a light-hearted tale of kitchens, lemonade, and death. |