AJ Sharpe
AJ Sharpe is a heavy metal fan with a job that requires a lot of movement. Now in continent number six, they’re still getting a kick out of meeting new cats.
Easy read of the poems in the images above:
Govanius, Govanius!
CW: mild references to death and injury
When the War-Saint came
to my hall he asked for my wife.
Limned in fire and gunsmoke; a silhouette
Devil-gorgeous, rough as wine.
He bent to me and said;
You dar’d to be my rival?
I see her naked face, salt stinging and
bitten open at the lips. My thicket-rose love,
my peace-bride.
She’ll snatch her eyes off, and repent the looking.
I kept her stone-wall safe. Kept her arrow-
nocked and cold stone clean. I gave her
of this world’s titles, that with flattery swells us,
And makes us die like beasts fat for destruction.
When the War-Saint came to my hall he asked
only for my wife and
my wife
alone.
And why not death? Is that too easy for me?
Anselmus speaks with Votarius under the castle walls.
CW: references to femicide and systemic misogyny
You’ve seen my face before. I am
Laertes, cut down for honour. I am
the Aosta-saint. My bones were scattered
and now I am lost.
I am a husband, and
my wife walks alone.
I would wipe her out.
Come, speak with her in
the open. See how she cares
not for chastity. Entrap her
with your words. I don’t
mind. If one is willingly
trapped
it cannot be a trap at all.
Come; speak with her. I
will thank you with my jealousy. She
how willingly she would run
from me.
Come. Speak with her.
Interlude: The Maiden
CW: implied reference to rape and alcohol abuse
At night my body waits
for the bite. I worry won’t come
more than I worry
it will.
The graciousness of an axe-fall;
a dreaded leniency. He
paints my face white.
I can’t move for the stiffness. It breaks at
my mouth-parts, the marionette lines of
my jaw. The hard plate of my
forehead rolled to scales. My skin
sheds what he’s touched. I drink each
night until I can’t see and
in the morning I feel
that he’s still
there.
