Welcome to Not bad!, Talk Vomit’s Sunday morning poetry series. Today we are featuring three poems from Portland, Oregon poet Elan Palmitessa.
InnerSpaces
i’m still-
the picture of divinity,
blankets swelling around my femurs
like waves,
my own birth,
an inverted Venus.
the sheen of new lovers
cleansed from my skin,
stricken from my eyes,
only a blind devotion
left behind
in their shallow pools.
40 days & I have never been this cool.
to the touch
I am marble,
I am resolved,
I have stumbled upon
a quiet,
a void
without my gritting teeth,
& the twine
that wraps itself around my organs-
an offering
without its opener.
A temple echoing.
*
Conditioning
I circle the years we spent together
Like a hawk over desert-
dried up & fissured
where there once was abundance.
those trusted hunting grounds
are barren,
are unable to move me,
& suddenly I am lonelier
than the opaque night
held between the canyon’s teeth.
retreat was your specialty,
leaving remnants of yourself
like a ghostly husk
dragging itself away
from its unfinished business.
it’s not about the haunted
it’s about the haunter, baby-
& you left me
in a ghost town of your own making.
*
Unmatched
You think you’re so evolved
for not merely disappearing
after you saw me naked
and asked me
to leave a toothbrush
for next time.
Do you hear yourself?
You are a parody
of every upper cut,
every round frame,
every pair of lips
that kiss well
and lack sincerity.
I’ve encountered so many
different versions of you,
all variations of the same thing.
Your ally ship,
your solidarity
just a ruse to convince me
to come back
to the shitty apartment
you’ve curated
in the image of your ego.
Elan Palmitessa is an artist and poet who is fascinated by the relationships we form with others and the one we form with ourselves, and how those relationships shape our inner and outer worlds. She is drawn to the natural world, to mythology and myth making, and to raw emotion, and enjoys bringing those elements into her work. She currently resides in the lush wonderland of Portland, OR.
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