Poking through the Fabric of the Light that Formed Us: Songs and Stories to Read in the Mirror by Lora Bloom

Lora Bloom’s collection, Poking through the Fabric of the Light that Formed Us: Songs and Stories to Read in the Mirror, is published by Blood Pudding Press in 2013. Lora Bloom’s words are fragmented images filled with refracting emotions throughout. It is an enticing and uncanny collection that I am happy to share a sample of with you:

Invisible

As I stood between his legs
This man told me he was from another planet
he asked if I wanted to go with him
I looked around, into the mirror
behind the bar
for a moment I was invisible
hiding behind my exposed skin
he smiled mysteriously
I shivered and laughed
I thought he was joking
but his tied and eyes
were very bright

This poem has the surreal experience of wonder in it and I cannot help but be drawn in to this man at the bar just as the poet is. Without revealing much about his appearance, we as readers are all eagerly daydreaming our own version of this man at the bar, wondering just how bright, and perhaps beautiful, those eyes are and if we’d contemplate going with him, too. I love this poem for bringing a flight-of-fancy that can be a rarely found journey in poems.



Clown Girl

I am the clown girl
with the plastic smile
the clone boys
with the plastic eyes
like to kiss my plastic lips
poke their rubber tongues
inside my mouth

they can’t taste the blood
that fills these plastic lips
makes them red
and plump as cherries

for the boys to kiss

underneath the plastic
I can’t feel their kisses
just a dull ache
like someone squeezed
where my cotton heart once was

And I am the pretty clown girl
with the plastic smile

sometimes,
when no one’s hiding near
and I don’t think I’ll mind the sting
sometimes I rip away the plastic
just to feel my lips, bloated
scratched and scarred
flap into breezes
I want to feel the stars
searing my bloodlips

would they laught, these boys
if they knew
behind my plastic smile
the frozen, blistered grimace

if they knew
the blasts of shadow laughter
blowing soft into their kisses

into their silly plastic eyes
that will never
taste the sky

like I do

I feel like this is the “Siren Song” of every female once they have had their heart broken for the first time and seal themselves up afterwards. I love the “Clown Girl” poem as it describes how so many people try to paint on that smile when looking for love yet also protect themselves, the poet uses plastic as the metaphor for closing off those feelings and nerve endings that allow her to fall in love. It’s a beautiful poem that deserves to be re-read as you’ll find more and more with each reading.



If you enjoyed this brief sample of Poking through the Fabric of the Light that Formed Us: Songs and Stories to Read in the Mirror by Lora Bloom, you may purchase a copy for $7.00 through Blood Pudding Press’ Etsy Site, just go to:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/BloodPuddingPress

Thanks always for reading, please drop in tomorrow for more Poems Found by Poet Hound