Melinda Blount

The Ophelia Diaries

I

The Drowning Girl


Did you drown in the curve
of Ophelia's hair-
spin eyes to stare
into the soul of
gold touched carp;

did he tell your future
in flips around wrists
taste your fingers in
quick licks

while his tears covered the sin
with Pity?



II


I wonder of the scream
in lungs, of destiny screeched
to a blind halt
in the bubbled breath
of driftwood laid against
my skin-

caress of fish to massage
the minute last seconds of dreams
swim my veins and bless goodbyes. . .



III


Calm

rippled silk of
silt mixed blue

laps that kiss
skin between toes
and I dip my wishes
into the drowned depths

of Ophelia's immortality.


IV


To be one with the waves
to dance upon sand, taste the salt
that stings in the cleansing;

play with the moon in
pulls and pushes against the earth's
solid hand-

wrap my tongue around
the coral and be one
with the fins of dolphins

that sleek through the night waters
in a mirror of my soul.




Trickle

Your lips trickled
across

hipbone mountains;

tangled the dawn
tornado tongued
in dew drops
against my skin.

Swore I was the cool
of Sunday mornings

& spoke of the story

of the man who climbed Mt. Sinai
just to experience
the trip down.




Remembering Sarah

It was the cherry brandy that essentially began the friendship

It must be the full sun
bloom or the way the leaves beg
to be shaken-
glimpse of red skinned
children awaiting the blistered pain of
heat's fingers against chests, backs;
the shimmered glint of red highlights
on the heads of brunettes
as they pass on their way to a destination
I'm not heading for, anymore.


I remember Sarah.
The plaited girl who hurried
through two years to walk
by my side.
I- the crone of sixteen winters
rested beneath my crown,
but she promised me whiskey, brandy
flinched from her mother's liquor cabinet.
We became the Laverne and Shirley of our time.
Pressed our breasts against the push-up
of bras and pretended
to know what we were getting into.

Became the fixture on the concrete step
leading into her mother's settled farm house-
counted cracks in the ground while sipping
cheap brandy and prayed her mother
never noticed the gradual drain from the bottle.

We were practicing Scarletts.
Our skirts bunched
on our knees and the gentle of tank tops
against bikini burnt bodies.
Painted our hope in fictional heroes
and fancied ourselves
debutantes. Her collection
of literature overreached my knowledge
and we spent nights
futuring our husbands from the pages.
That white flaked bedroom became
our get-a-way, and we decorated it
with the magazine gloss of places
we would reach when we were old enough to
afford tickets out of town.

The scent of vintage paper and untouched
piano dust became my home for that drought hot
summer, her mother introduced us to Uncle Remus
and created life stories from bible verses.
Three months of ramen noodles and I never realized
they stretched money just to entertain me.
In a home where everything sagged in the middle,
save their generosity, and the black and white
antique showed us how dreams formed
romance through taped movies.

Dabbed on the perfume from catalog samples
and pranced upon each other's feet- leaped
on friendship like thirsty creatures
and didn't find anything odd about
mirroring each other. Her in the blue
eyeliner and I painted green upon my lids.
The aqua twins running beneath a sprinkler
fashioned from a broken water hose.
Dyed her hair honey and tasted
the breath of that beyond
our reaching hands. Wanted more

and chased the false of rainbows
in a water bill they probably
couldn't afford. Learned
how to love from the cover of novels

while pretending antebellum and drinking
stolen brandy.

Melinda Blount's poems have recently appeared in Hazmat Review, Willow Review, and Morning Star Literary Journal. She is a mother of three children and currently lives in Ohio with her boyfriend, two cats and one lazy rabbit.

 Current Issue:
October 2007

Melinda Blount
Frank DeCanio
Bobbi Dykema
Taylor Graham
John Grey
Don Kloss
Alicia Matheny
Pam Pignataro
Jeremy Rich
Bill Roberts
Bethany Rountree
Tom Sheehan
Kelsey Upward

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