ISSN: 1941-4137
POETRY THAT ENACTS THE ARTISTIC AND CREATIVE PURITY OF GLASS
POETRY THAT ENACTS THE ARTISTIC AND CREATIVE PURITY OF GLASS
M/Em Amory (they/them) is, like glitter, an intangible light effect made physical, mostly plastic, and often from New Jersey. Their work has recently found a home with Impossible Archetype and Kissing Dynamite, among others. They can be found in real life, under a pile of blankets watching The Good Place with their two cats, both scorpios.
Also by M/Em Amory:
Gina Cazador From Season Five of Bojack Horseman and Monica Lewinsky
Aileen Wuornos Talks Me Down From A PTSD Episode
Love Is […]
artemisia paints me and I ask her to describe what she sees
brass knuckle and two knife tattoos; that hair,
how men on the train will ask oh is that natural?;
pocket knife, asked for the easiest one to open;
so many things on you are for decoration but
the muscles aren’t; scarred hands; Madonna, Eve,
Mary Magdalene, Venus, Delilah, Joan, the scorned
and the sacred; your talent is a threat, look in
their face and show no fear; sleep next to a metal
baseball bat and a bushel of lilac; gun permit and
monthly target practice; you learned to throw knives
in your basement while you did your laundry; you
could slice the neck of any of the men they don’t believe
you about and somewhere the Holy Virgin would
applaud, i swear, a nun told me that one; they want
you to shrivel up and die because they see you’re
not empowered by the intervention of one of their gods;
see your strong arms and know how hard the world
made you; now name yourself a virtuous women,
keeping a dagger in her bedchamber, sleeves pushed up,
anchor tattoo homage to the sea-salt sailor mouth;
always ready for a bloodbath; your scars and stretch
marks; i see some other poor woman violated in the
same way, and how she managed to keep on living.
Artemisia Gentileschi, or Artemisia Lomi, was an Italian painter, famous for her depictions of visually dynamic, realistic, and sometimes violent women. She is best known for her depiction of Judith Slaying Holofernes. This poem was informed by, and borrows some language from, The Passion of Artemisia by Susan Vreeland. This piece was the first in what has become a series of poems that put me in conversation with famous women, fictional or otherwise. Some other subjects include Amy Dunne from Gone Girl, Daisy Buchanan, and Elle Woods. All these poems are an attempt to celebrate, illuminate, or grapple with the good and bad parts of myself I find represented in other women. The project is called Scorned Woman.
Glass: A Journal of Poetry is published monthly by Glass Poetry Press.
All contents © the author.
All contents © the author.
