Venus in the Year 2020
She is in us, this woman with a skull face
and feathers for hair.
She rises over the bones of her past
with a slow shield
and a fast axe.
From the crest of her walking stick,
hair streams in the wind
as though head and staff
have traded adornment.
She has painted detachment on her face
and tucked emotions under a skin cloak
shredded by the teeth of her life.
She wears her seeds
wound around her long throat,
streaming down her front
to end in a pendant
made from bones
whose stories
only she
knows.
Behind her and beside her,
the skeletons of her memories
and riches
in hide pouches.
With few secrets left,
she stands sentinel
on the mountain.
If she could fly?
She has plucked
her wings
for ornament.
She
stands.
lifelessons - a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown 
She has painted detachment on her face
and tucked emotions under a skin cloak
shredded by the teeth of her life.
She wears her seeds
wound around her long throat,
streaming down her front
to end in a pendant
made from bones
whose stories
only she
knows.
– Great lines. To me (correct me if I’m wrong) this poem portrays a woman who has seen much pain, but refuses to cave in.
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You got it…and, “There Will Come Soft Rains” is one of my favorite short stories.. the first version, not the second.
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I haven’t read the short story. I want to someday. My blog is inspired by Sara Teasdale’s poem. It’s one of my favourite pieces by her. ‘The Answer,’ being another.
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I love the poem as well and Ray Bradbury’s story perfectly illustrates it. But you must see his first version. He later rewrote it and I didn’t like it as much.
Chillingly true.
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“She stands” indeed… Very nicely conjured Judy – your clear vision has real power here…
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Thanks, Scott.
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Beautifully penned Judy and carries so much about loss and grief that is painful but in this, not overbearing.
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Thanks, PV. I have rewritten this piece a number of times and I’m still not sure it is exactly right, but we’ll see how it looks on the screen and bet there will be a few changes in the upcoming weeks.
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As we do sometimes, but it reads well
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Nice descriptive lines: “She has painted detachment on her face
and tucked emotions under a skin cloak”
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Thanks, Frank. That line seemed a bit excessive, but so far I’ve been unable to alter it. I tend to change poems a bit every few readings. Even the published ones. Do you ever do that? Fuss, fuss.
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“a pendant
made from bones
whose stories
only she
knows.”
What a picture!
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Yes.. a bit of a ghastly theme suggested there. That line with the seeds is still not right but on some future reading , its solution will pop into my mind..hopefully.
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I wonder if not,
she has grown
stronger with pain.
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