Leda

from Children of the Anxious City by Al Russell

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lyrics

I
My fly's zipper
caught pubic hair
uprooted it
pinched the follicle
wings beat like hooves
punched my chest
beak punctured hymen
oh it was glorious
rough and tumble
and a spatter of blood

I was given a great gift.

Why do you say it
in such a mocking tone?

I don't,
at least
not yet.

II
A blue eye, a blue, blue eye, blue for want of brown.
My Castor dropped his spoon, it clattered like magazine fire
(startled me) and now he is a man. I washed Pollux carefully
until he outgrew the sink, the tub, the yard, they are growing, growing (terrifying)
and eclipse my view of the sky, everything now dark blue and too opaque.
They're too big for their forgotten mother, all I have left
are these ostrich egg shells.

Stupid Leda—
women are only mothers,
wives,
sisters of men.

That's all right, Zeus. You'll die too.

credits

from Children of the Anxious City, released January 14, 2019

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about

Al Russell North Carolina

Al Russell is a graduate of the MFA program at the University of New Hampshire. She is a poetry editor at Outlook Springs literary journal. She is also an ordained minister of the Church of the Subgenius. She lives in North Carolina.