Benjamin L. Pérez
Three “fragments” from The Love Songs of Hades
My Heart*
{ABOVE:} Forenoon glade.
Gauzy bloom.
Dancing girls’
Dew-wed feet,
Do beat, and break, my heart.
{BELOW:} Foreworn shade.
Hazy swoon.
Sullied girls’
Soot tattoos,
Dare grudge, dear smudge, my heart.
—--
*καρκινική επιγραφή
My Heart*
{ABOVE:} Forenoon glade.
Gauzy bloom.
Dancing girls’
Dew-wed feet,
Do beat, and break, my heart.
{BELOW:} Foreworn shade.
Hazy swoon.
Sullied girls’
Soot tattoos,
Dare grudge, dear smudge, my heart.
—--
*καρκινική επιγραφή
Adonis
Aphrodite—tattered dress.
Aphrodite—battered breast.
Saffron’s bedding down with night.
Purple falls on nightfall’s knife.
Pomegranate Dreams
Bridal lesion,
Alizarin-prize.
——--
Imbrued bride.
Gladiated groom.
——--
Riven pomegranate,
Cinnabar-tears.
Benjamin L. Pérez used to teach various English and humanities courses at the San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI), including a course titled “Trickster Makes This World: Mischief, Myth, and Art”; now he teaches various English and humanities courses at Cogswell Polytechnical College (CPC), including Introduction to Creative Writing and a course titled “Apocalypse and the American Imagination.” In addition to teaching at CPC, he also volunteer-teaches various English and humanities courses at San Quentin State Prison, through the Prison University Project (PUP). Spuyten Duyvil published his experimental/transgressive work The Evil Queen and BlazeVOX published his "bi-textual" work CUNTIONARY/Repent at Your Leisure (or The Folklore of Hell). He is currently working on The Love Songs of Hades, “fragments” of which have appeared in various literary journals, including Noon, Concīs, and Hummingbird. His poem “Our Faulkner,” published in The Orchards Poetry Journal, was nominated for a Pushcart Prize.
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