Jack Skelley, photo by Gary Leonard
______________________________________________________
Green Goddess
Who made the salad
Whose tangy vinegar made me wince
Who played pouty Venus to my impudent Caesar
Who taught me to renounce meat
Who flowed forth lubricants
Who performed dark sacraments
Whose tart shrub tangled my tongue
Who with unctuous poses oiled me
Who received my verdant sacrifice
Who, as I reclined panting, poured herself into her dressing
Who lured me to the garden and dragged me into deep greens
Who instructed me on the use of the proper fork
Who inserted an oblong cucumber
Who shredded slender carrot sticks
Whose burning bush consumed the sky god’s timbers, shaking his heavens to the rafters
Who roused me in damp chambers, dousing reasonable fires to consume knowledge raw
Who at the crack of the vernal equinox, broke seasoned bread into bite-sized croutons
Who parted beet-red vestments
Who swelled my painted cave-beast proud and pregnant
Who put me in the red-pepper pink
Whose celestial power I would enviously drink
Who succored me when I lay pallid
Who made the salad
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Jack’s Skelley’s “Green Goddess” appears in his latest collection, Interstellar Theme Park: New and Selected Writing (BlazeVOX books). Other books include: Monsters (Little Caesar Press), Dennis Wilson and Charlie Manson (Fred & Barney Press), and Fear of Kathy Acker (Semiotext(e), spring 2023). He is also songwriter and guitarist for psychedelic surf band Lawndale which just released a new album, Twango.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
“Product Placement”—one of nine collages by Erin Alexander for Interstellar Theme Park: New and Selected Writing by Jack Skelley.
Go to Source
Author: Terence Winch
