1920Janebasilblog (Jane Paterson Basil) and thefeatheredsleep (Candice Louisa Daquin) collaborated on this beautiful poem of Jane’s called My Frayed Sleeve.

For two decades

(Time parlays reason)

your salt-paste lies piled up

(Resisting calls from outer world’s)

like pancakes on a cracked plate,

(Accumulating as sea birds watch unloaded catch)

while you hammered at my heart,

(The ring around my throat that is you)

delighting in the blood

(Sampling my intention to survive)

which seeped

(Sounds like silence reaching over years)

scarlet

(Capturing your purchase)

through my frayed sleeve

(As I push the hair from your face)

Even if you’d believed

(On a windy day when salt stung air)

I would leave,

(Did you plan then on your meal of me?)

you would not

(Carving trust into lean cuts)

have been kinder to me.

(Pass the condiments, tight wristed and stranger)

I scribed you into history

(With my pen I wrote your existence)

long before

(Predetermined and sharp like forks lost in pockets)

you ceased breathing.

(Holding our breath we exhaled and then)

Each shred of regret morphed into relief,

(Day gave way to scratched music playing in locked rooms)

so there’s nothing to grieve –

(I could not spoon you out of my mouth)

leaving only a thin breeze of pity.

(You stayed, a jam capturing season)

.©Jane Paterson Basil/Candice Louisa Daquin

Check out Jane’s amazing work on her blog: https://wordpress.com/read/feeds/29649962

10 Replies to “My frayed sleeve / collab w/ Jane Basil”

  1. Yay! I love the image you chose to go with this. I’d like to reblog it tomorrow. Rather than post your poem that I re-hashed, I’d like to have another go at doing what what you did with this poem. I’m going through a difficult time at the moment, so it may take a while xxx

  2. I have a brother who has been taking an interest in theoretical dimensions beyond the 3rd. Your words made the compostition almost four-dimensional. I find more in it every time I read it.

    It’s late and I should be in bed. I will email you tomorrow if I get the opportunity. Thank you, friend xx

  3. Well done Candice and Jane, a wondrous collaborative piece, and I especially like these lines, they touched me deeply
    “Each shred of regret morphed into relief,
    (Day gave way to scratched music playing in locked rooms)
    so there’s nothing to grieve –
    (I could not spoon you out of my mouth)”

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