casket girl
orphaned then ladied, i’m a changeling
shifting like the shades of the sea
my body lain like a dried up mermaid
stowed at the bow of a ship
en voyage from one hell to the next
slowly being undressed by pestilence
laces barely cling to my shoulders
cheeks no longer roseate flesh
virgin of the huddled dead
i keep warm in my bloodied mouth
teeth crack & fall, blood gums—
knees fail, my body contorts
i dream every night in the waves
i’m floating away, slowly drifting below
the red surface, the white veil films
my eyes & i’m taken by moonlight
*
the ship docks to a parade of masks
men waiting to meet their springtime
ladies. we shuffle like brittle skeletons
splintering at the ship’s edges
i drag the only life i knew behind:
a casket, a locket, one broken picture
of the Garden Of Eden, disintegrating
memory like the shedding of my skin
the morbid joy amongst the paradesters
halts into gasps & they rush the dealers
for their money back—this is not what
they ordered, not brimming with life
nor full of nuptial dreams
instead, we welcomed
any swift death
*
forgive me, sir, but you would like to keep her?
he nods his head eagerly, my broken spirit beaming save me
he hands the dealer one last bill, one last bill of his tongue
ladles my ear, mouthing save me
if he knows i will be the death of him, why does he keep me
i’m lying in a bed of feathers coughing up blood & dust
& i feel the slowing of my heart resonating in my chest
this charity, his makeshift nunnery—
can never save the soul i left among the waves months ago
*
the blood moon rises
in a dream, i’m changing back into the sea—i’m rolling
high with the moon, orb in my eyes, magical lightening
splitting me into tidal waves & typhoons, my body tears
from my soul & i wake with the taste of blood in my eyes
Courtney Leigh Jameson is The Bowhunter of White Stag Publishing LLC & a QC Analyst (proofreader) at CVS/caremark. Her poems & prose have appeared in several journals, including Sierra Nevada Review, Naughty Ghost, FLARE: Flaglar Review, The Doctor T.J. EckelburgReview, MadHat Lit, Crack The Spine, Slipstream Press, Cowboy Poetry Press, GoneLawn, Danse Macabre, Similar:Peaks::, & Clockwise Cat. She just completed her chapbook Milton[ic] Partisan & her first full length book of poetry ghosts in the sky. She currently resides in Phoenix, Arizona.