Annual Brigid in Cyberspace Poetry Slam Imbolc 2013

Blessed Imbolc!
Here is my contribution for this year's reading:

Defending Yourself Against Love

When, plump and warm and a little wild,  
love tries to climb in your lap
and come at you
with a golden arrow, just-sharpened
and fledged with dove feathers,
you feel how very cold is the stone
home you’ve made for yourself,
yet still pretend to resist
the willful advance.  Then
suddenly you come all undone
in one innocent moment….
looking at a map together, you bump heads,
curls brush your cheek
soft as dove feathers…
and you yield, knowing
you want the wound, hungering
for kisses like honey
to seal it, to heal it.



--Zann Carter (2012)
 after the painting by William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Girl Defending Herself Against Love