Two Poems: narcissus; stalk the open ring
narcissus
not step twice into not
step back from stream.
its nets are storm blackened,
Narcissus’ flower is a cut out.
it has shut in cold,
skeining back into the bud
echo and,
outbreath.
he skeins back the thread
the blind buds are always.
step
(not-step)
back then.
step
(not-step)
back then,
from the black river nets.
stalk the open ring
stalk the open ring,
this waystation.
others speak him out of chrysalis,
it is voice brings us alive.
it is an unearthing voice that,
brings us alive.
his hands bound by feathers,
red wings, a difficult birthing.
the gash,
female-d,
purple.
her silks,
those integuments retain,
& prevent voice from birthing out.
Photo credit
About Chris Murray
Chris Murray is an Irish poet. Her chapbook Three Red Things was published by Smithereens Press in June 2013. A small collection of interrelated poems in series and sequence, Cycles, was published by Lapwing Press in autumn 2013. A book-length poem, The Blind, was published by Oneiros Books in 2013. Her second book-length poem, She, was published by Oneiros in spring 2014. A chapbook, Signature, was published by Bone Orchard Press in March 2014. “A Modern Encounter with ‘Foebus abierat’: On Eavan Boland’s ‘Phoebus Was Gone, all Gone, His Journey Over’ ” was published in Eavan Boland: Inside History (Editors: Nessa O’Mahony and Siobhán Campbell) by Arlen House in 2016.
