Sonnets and Other Vices - Poetry by Carolyn Rose Ham
Welcome
New Pieces
New Sonnets
>
Impetus
Zumba
Ageism
Almanac
Anagrammatize
Chloroplasticity
Conversion
Ballroom
Whistle
Other New Poems
>
Hot
Amateur Cartography
Here
A Quality of Water
Take My Word
Scientific Method
Ernest
Post Modern
Not Quite
To My City of Roses
Selected Collection
Sonnets
Other Poems
Favorite Things
Favorite Classical Poems
Favorite Contemporary and Slam Poets
Work by Friends and Favorite Journals
Bio
Contact
Updates
Post Modern
Already from your blithe blueprinting smile
I'm guessing you've envisioned several separate
Styles of your designs on me.
Navy with hunter argyle for knees, perhaps
Or neon on saffron; pink patchouli
Paisley prints over my ankles;
Your mother's uncle's family's scottish plaid to cloak
Each crook of lower back
Then thin old navy stripes alike to silky
Cheap-rack sundress in September, laying
Enswathed over shoulders -
You've dyed my very marrow in your mind:
Umber-twinging damask swirls, laid
Geometric crimson-quilt horizons
Folded neatly upon heaving chest and
Gold-leaf-burnished crosses 'round my neck.
You have made your designs.
But be advised: when iron-ons don't stick
To this too-slick chameleon skin,
Don't blame the patchwork doll for loosened hems.
I have always looked my best
Within the flesh of these old abstract
Compositions -
Set for soapcraft, quick as ice to contradiction.
~CRH July 2012
Note: Feel free to share my work but please use my name if you do