SHROUD

self-portrait

INNER CHILD

(assemblage---work in progress)

MILKING PARLOR FOR PSYCHEDELIC COWS

abandoned milking parlor

(assemblage sculpture)

I want to make
a girl with wings
Not like who
I was before
The father’s daughter
mummy girl
hanging from the ceiling
She swayed above
my father’s head
“What does that mean?”
he asked me once
“She is a part
of me that died,”
I answered him
with caution
I didn’t go further
to tell him why
not wanting then
to hurt him.
She was wrapped
in silver cloth
with silver eyes
that couldn’t see
a silver mouth
that couldn’t speak
and silver hands
tied down
Like leather belts
he wrapped me in
beyond recall
the silver welts
like battle scars
rising on my skin
He made me his
the mummy girl
asleep a thousand
years
I want to make
a girl with wings
who isn’t dead
and dry inside
who still can weep
but not for him
whose body bleeds
but not for him
whose skin belongs
to her alone
to do with
what she will
I want to make
a girl with wings
and teach her
how to fly

c.2011MarleneAzoulai.

EARTH HOUSE

Hornet Nest---truly a work of art

WHEN HAUNTED PLACES SPEAK...

A house is a woman. A place that holds people within it, as a mother does a child. I passed this house many times while she was 'alive and well', when I would drive into town. One night, she burned down. I bought a broken crystal chandelier from the family she had sheltered, when they were having a sale after the fire. I found out that, thank goodness, no one had been hurt. The chandelier is hanging outside at the entrance of my trailer. For a long time, the house stood burnt and abandoned. She spoke to me each time I drove by. Now she's once and for all been torn down. Today, one more time. she called to me ...

PHOENIX

There was a rhythm in the dream
There was a place I lost control
There was a time I went to sleep
a long time ago

There are echoes in my blood
Now I never rest
There's an army of angels
all dressed in red

It's underneath my fingernails
like claws for the fight
A panther who would crack the skin
I wear for you

No more lady of this night
No more step across my back
No more howl into my soul
all the words you cannot say

I'm taking over now.
I don't need you anymore
I don't need you for the dark
to roll me to the dawn

I whispered and I cringed
and I smiled at you too much
You grabbed me by the ribs and said,
"Oh, babe, I like you small "

The panther's at my breast
She's suckled long enough
She is the night you fear in me
She is the sacred scream


It's running up my spine now
This long red thing
from the earth to the sky
from the east to the west

I don't need you to say yes
That it's going to be alright
I don't need you to love this place
where madness reigns

I don't need you to call me
by sexy names
To sit on my throne
and throw me crumbs in bed

It's too late to be nice
and I've come too far
I've climbed the mountain
and I’ve drunk her down

If you kiss me now
you will burn in hell
And you will love the flames
that lick me clean

c.MarleneAzoulai2000

FLESH AND BONE

CRY ME A RIVER

stranger in my skin
salvaged from chaos
you walk the tightrope
drawn razor-sharp
over the chasm
of what is real
and what is not

C.ma2011