Twisted days from "Scylla and Charybdis"

Creeping crawling starving

Scylla is fast and silent

you see the shining sun

eat cheese and lemon cake

you close your eyes and heart

you feed Scylla’s fangs

you honey and vertigo filled

you get home and think

the monster only happens

to everybody else

eat bread eat lies at night

sorrow until tomorrow

keep sugar honey sweets

behind your twisted days

Whirling twisting shining

Charybdis is charm and whimsy

you see the scary wound

drink urine and sweet sweat

you open arms and legs

you hold onto Charybdis

bile and saccharine soaked

you dream and come to wish

that that peach can only be

yourself without a doubt

strip and drink and dance

eat flesh eat bones at dawn

keep sugar honey sweets

behind your twisted days.

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This poem belongs to the series of poems published as "Scylla and Charybdis". The book can be bought here and the preface of it can be read here.

Preface to "Scylla and Charybdis" by James Knight

Mina Polen’s Scylla and Charybdis is one of the most extraordinary poem cycles I have read in recent years. It expresses something essential about Mexico, its people, its politics, its darkly dazzling dreams, using ancient myths to illuminate a complex contemporary world.

The synthesis of the real and the imaginary in Mina’s work locates her in a vibrant Latin American tradition that has produced the likes of Octavio Paz and Alejandra Pizarnik. Her work is surrealist in the hallucinatory power of its words, images, patterns. Nothing feels contrived, nothing is forced. Her imagination interacts with Mexico, transforms it, reveals it, makes us see it afresh.

As the title suggests, this book is full of monsters. Not toothless literary creations that melt at dawn, but the real monsters ravaging Mexico: capitalism, drugs, crime, a corrupt government, impotence, apathy. Despite this, the word “hope” rises from the pages, forms strange clouds. Every reader will see something different in those misty shapes.

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You can buy Mina’s book here.
Text and image are the copyright of James Knight. All rights reserved.

Scylla / Charybdis

Scylla wants your broken hope

your broken bones your broken blood

Scylla eats your body parts

your sex your youth your coming sons

Scylla loves your golden blood

your brain your thought your solid mould

Scylla longs to be your King

your queer your dear your fucking Queen

Scylla hears your step your breath

is underneath your wrecked health

Scylla feeds your stupid pride

steals your wife your fetid life

Scylla fucks your fragile mind

your feeble kind what lies behind

Scylla strives to carry on

to vibe your womb to squeeze your lung

Scylla steals your future gone

your fractured bone your fear undone

Scylla drinks your holy thirst

your lowly gasp your wholly peace

Scylla hates your languid tears

your liquid fears your lucid years

Scylla gutless.

Image by James Knight.

Charybdis whirls

and you see pearls

Charybdis speaks

and you feel weak

Charybdis lures

and you sense cures

Charybdis shows

and you feel throes

Charybdis dances

and you see chances

Charybdis shines

and you hear rhymes

Charybdis strips

and your head flips

Charybdis kisses

and your heart hisses

Charybdis lies

and you eat flies

Charybdis hides

and you drown in tides

Charybdis sings

and your trust springs

Charybdis scuttles.

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These are two poems belonging to the series of poems published as "Scylla and Charybdis". The book can be bought here and the preface of it can be read here.

Paralysis

Numbness

a whirlpool circles above our heads

            it whispers      it sting us

numbness

and we can walk amongst the dead

            they are not here

                        they were dropped off

around the corner

numbness

and we can laugh

            with a little shot

                        of anaesthesia

Blindness

and we can run and befog our hearts

            we can follow the candy floss

blindness

and we are not here

            we are never there

                        we never were

blindness

and Scylla is not what it seems to be

            it does not have so many heads

                        nor dried blood on every scale

Deafness

and nobody screams nobody cries

            they are not there

                        we cannot hear

deafness

and music is all that we can hear

            there is no screech of broken lungs

deafness

and we can sing

            nobody out there

                        fear is not knocking

on every door

Muteness

and we cannot talk with fragile voices

            nothing to say

                        no need to speak

muteness

and we can hum a lullaby

            no words no tunes

                        no dreams no faith

Paralysis

and Scylla smiles.

This poem belongs to the series of poems published as "Scylla and Charybdis". The book can be bought here and the preface of it can be read here.