Sunday, April 3rd, 2011...5:10 pm
pris campbell | mind meld & virgins
Mind Meld
for John Bennett
In an accidental mind
meld with John Bennett,
he sends me an apple
disguised (cleverly) as a tomato.
It floats in front of Meg Ryan,
playing an alcoholic,
while Andy Garcia tries hard
to save her.
I take a bite, lose
my innocence, of course,
paste on three fig leaves.
Shards parachute into Eden.
John’s not trying to save me.
He just wants me to dance.
Virgins
Felled by illness, my friend,
veins once plump with boldness,
tells me the Virgin appeared
in a cloud of rosedust,
instructed her to lie in bed
suffering for all of humanity,
and so she gathers icons, burrows
into her dim bedroom, tv droning,
dreams of salvation and Armageddon.I think of other virgins-
Somaly Mam and those thousands
of Cambodian children sold
into the sex trade each year
to be raped and re-sewn,
becoming virgins for sale
all over again.Chained
Cut
Starved
Shocked
Locked into dark cages
Maggots stuffed into their mouths
Filled with the semen
of faceless men
day after day,
their childhood rises
like giant blackbirds
to flap blindly across
the brothel ceilings.My words scream for them
across this useless fragment of paper.I think of Somaly Mam’s torture,
her miraculous escape,
her returns over and again
to free more girls–some so terrified
their mouths won’t open to speak,
their minds lost in darkness.I wonder what the Virgin would say to them.
Do I sound cynical?
I intended to.I think of grandfather
pumping his stench into my mouth,
how my rage still turns into
an inferno some days, my hope
that there is indeed a hell
for these masters of frightened children,
so certain young weeping voices
would never rise above a murmur
to haunt them.
some related articles are listed below:
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- james campbell | fulfillment? & this is not about torture
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- james campbell | who the fuck rapes people?
15 Comments
April 3rd, 2011 at 7:48 pm
I love the “virgins” poem. Powerful writing. Pris hammers this one home.
April 3rd, 2011 at 8:10 pm
Palpable, raw and soul-shaking.
April 3rd, 2011 at 8:25 pm
An excellent tribute to John. Good show, Pris.
April 3rd, 2011 at 9:18 pm
Thank all three of you for taking the time to comment. I appreciate it, and thanks to Klaus for publishing these.
April 3rd, 2011 at 10:30 pm
both poems are wonderful, pris, and i’m so pleased they were published. the second has a special meaning to me, for falling ill to me-cfs is, in many ways, similar to being raped as it steals one’s life away… the picture is haunting. xoxooxox
April 3rd, 2011 at 11:08 pm
Intense. The short line is the right vehicle.
You break on the gasp.
April 4th, 2011 at 12:16 am
Virgins literally gave me goosebumps. I wish we could save all of the children….
April 4th, 2011 at 12:49 am
Both are wonderful!
April 4th, 2011 at 2:11 am
Sensitive, powerful, keepers! Typical Bennett
April 4th, 2011 at 7:52 am
You have captured the horrors of child abuse and child prostitution as I’ve never seen before. It makes me ashamed to admit that so called human beings participate in this disgusting ritual abuse. And the fact that it is as prevalent today as it ever was. It does not bode well for the continuation of the human species on this planet.
April 4th, 2011 at 12:37 pm
I appreciate the time you all took to read and comment. Thank you! Philip, it makes me ashamed, too.
April 4th, 2011 at 3:45 pm
Pris – bravo – poigniant real and powerful – honest word from an honest heart -
April 4th, 2011 at 4:15 pm
I am afrade that it is all to true and my sole is too damaged to confront.
April 4th, 2011 at 5:23 pm
I would admire almost anything you wrote, Pris – even a laundry-list! But Virgins is something special, powerful, designed to shock – and it does! It demeans us all as humans to think that such things go on today.
April 5th, 2011 at 11:24 am
Mike, Keebler, and Geoff, I appreciate your kind words on my poems. Yes, it’s shocking to think that what happened in the Virgins poem still happens today. The Somaly Mam foundation has still been hard at work with rescues there, but then there’s the sex slave trade all over the world…..not to mention private bedrooms in homes everywhere or priests with little boys or pediophiles. It boggles the mind.
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