From Here On In
A Collage Poem
By
Jennifer Angelina Petro
(Using my own words and phrases,
as well as some found in, “The Golden Ass,”
by Apuleius, trans. By Jack Lindsay, 1962)
I want to know everything
in the world. Beyond
the narrow cast of reason,
that is where I am going.
I consider nothing impossible.
The hinges snapped
from my mind’s shutters,
and I am thirsty for every sip
of novelty. I want festivals
of the flesh—the rare
and the marvelous.
If you want to go with me,
I ask you do not think,
to carry no convictions—
be like a newborn sun—wings
outspread, conceived by sea
and foam, fragrant as cinnamon.
Unwind your wants and desires,
listen to the rivers muttering magic
begun again anew in full brilliancy, as scars
of old wounds heal as you spirit
through leaves and fields, leaping, like
a goat high in the mountains.
Dionysus will be our guide.
This abandonment is the touchstone
of warm snuggery, of a luxuriance
of kisses, of bandying jests,
of uncrimping the soul, of a kind
of wild freedom that resounds
bliss through your every bone.
Everything you see
from here on in
is you.
