Crysanthemum – Poem by Kristin Garth

Rethink.  Suppose.  Remove your clothes. Rebirth,

religion — rather decompose?  In woods,

you’re circled, laid in leaves.  Against the earth,

surrounded, crimson sheaths.  They huddle, hoods

with holes for horns.  Chrysanthemums, your crown,

a chain of years you mourn.  Your nocturne, fright,

they play by knife.  Their sister found, then bound,

becomes now wife.  Your limbs, their fingers, slight,

pull taut.  Renamed, redeemed, new rules all taught.

For prophet’s pleasures, pittance paid. Your plight,

a penance pounded atop a grave. Caught

created, crushed beneath eternal knight,

bicuspid teeth.  Rewired, his whim, within.

Baptized by flesh, submerged in skin.  Begin.