Arachnid

She’s not hard-wired for predation.
Mating, then killing,
j ust ain’t her thing.
Her instinct is more creative.

Red and black, roaming spider,
A black widow, mind you,
crawls from one open mic to the next,
endowed with gifts for storytelling & rhyme.

The Seduction of Count Dracula,
the alienation felt like Frankenstein,
Merlin’s gift of magic,
Red Riding Hood’s lustful curiosity about the wolf!

Pitch-perfect,
flowing feelings of lava needed to be released,
which spoke of vulnerability, surviving hard trials, heart’s
transition from pain to strength.

Tennessee arachnid,
widow in red,
Latina Goth
Prodigal Poet.

Spins her web,
catches many flies,
using the best
possible words on hand.

___________________________
W: Marilyn Monroe Birthday 2022
[ For Gina Carillo a.k.a. Black Widow. ]

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Gentleman Villain

Saint Louis, candy magnate’s heir,
Yale-educated,
Gilbert and Sullivan-trained,
Poe-fascinated.

Mercury Theater on the radio,
gateway to the screen actor’s game,
but it was in castles and mansions of Gothic
Horror films where he saw his greatest fame.

Medieval/Victorian gentleman villain,
mad scientist type— those were the times.
His gaze and voice together
have chilled millions of spines.

Manner smoother than satin, yet colder than ice.
Motion picture master of menace was he— Vincent Price.

_____________________________________________
W: Vincent Price Birthday

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Reclamation

Scavengers of history have taken your image and likeness, those bondage shots, those bikini shots, pictures of you playing on Miami Beach, and made thousands, perhaps millions, in their reproduced states. And this was long after you bid your tacit farewell to model New York City Winter,1957. Exploitation profited the scavengers, not you. Still, the interest returned for the investment in you in the first George Bush years. And you returned too, making more money in seclusion than you did for 7 years as everybody’s favorite pin-up. Reclamation of self. Younger self. Sensuous self. The image scavengers won’t win this time, Bettie.

_________________________
W: Vincent Price Birthday 2022
[ For Marissa Isch-Forbes. ]

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Also Read:

Poems by Mohammad Rizwan Bhat