“Never Mind” by Kristen Marcano

NEVER MIND

Kristen Marcano

Oh, tell me that life is more than this! Silence my sorrows with a tender kiss And draw me up from this dank, dark abyss Where I lie lonely, fallen. Hope lies cold and forgotten Another million miles below— And I’m beginning to think I’ll find happiness if my soul sinks, Slips where the living cannot go.

Give me reason not to lay down this head— This ghost ship heart haunted by dreams long dead. Joy, like a lover, left me adrift when she fled. Now I have ceased awaiting her return. A woman dies when she learns not to yearn.

When I was a girl, unscathed by pleasure or pain— Rose-red fruit ripe for the plucking, unstained— The sweet earth whispered, “What is it that you want?” But a woman knows the question is a taunt— That to answer is to proffer Her Heavenly Punisher the very whip That will leave her body broken, Bloody and stripped So don’t tell me that life is more than this. Just distract me with a little carnal bliss— Lift me up out of this fuckery with your lips. Time crushes all things; too soon the morning Will sweep you off and leave me mourning The reverie that was your skin on mine. Worry not! No, don’t you fear, love— Here, just hold my body near, love. Forget all I’ve said—never mind, Never mind.