Poetry Collection by B.A. O’Connell
12/06/21 [POEM SIX]
Plath quotes well-loved from teenage-hood
bloom between my lips like moth from
the dark warmth of my mouth—
I give it forth and freely,
between my open pupil to the
center of your crooked and shaking
palm—
I know how to watch now. I see
how you take my second-hand sadness into you
like a child between us.
We nurse our hurts together until they become one;
out on a terrace
the moon is so loud tonight
in her shining,
I have a naked yearning
in the telling of another’s secrets—
we stand chest to chest,
flames igniting in the connection—we burn
as martyrs
as signals
as all the ghosts we cannot leave behind.
12/06/21 [POEM TWO]
I am a rig frame
of a half-built cathedral—
I am the Earth
and her moon—spinning
on my axis
looking at the sunlight
surrounded by twins and giants;
I am the devil’s bible
and all the secrets within—
hundreds of pages,
pulled from
soul through bone
and I am all yours, all yours
in the white lightning backed
nighttime,
move the electricity from the
mirror of your shining eyes,
to the ends of me,
all through me—
roll thunder of your tongue
to mine
and make the universe realign.
12.02.21 [POEM FOUR]
Stars fall quickly though
obsidian night—
silver tails
across aching sky,
breathless, I watch,
my hand in yours—
all of the darkness
illuminated
as we watch
God or angels
or other celestials
collapse into fragile Earth—
craters
wings,
dirt,
all around us the supernatural,
the signs of God
and I am glad to
witness it with you.
12.02.21 [POEM THREE]
Mystical—underneath my feet
as mycelium,
I sit on the trunk of trees,
long fallen,
waiting for the fruiting body
of you
to burst forth
as the network of you
eats decay
beneath the rich dark dirt—
I no longer despair in your absence,
but place mulch and debris
over the empty space
hoping for a fruitful spring
and a peaceful winter.
12.02.21 [POEM TWO]
Decadent, delicate, desperate—
we were so entwined
my mind was the tentacles
of a jellyfish
reaching tendrils
through the coral core of your
amygdala and cerebral cortex—
I want to be what remains
of fear and breathing,
I want to be what speeds
your heart—
gently pounding
in expectation
of my touch—
lover,
hold me,
and I will entangle
myself with you.