djinn and chimpanzees

[ursula]

ashfae made an offhand comment about the impossibility of writing melodramatic cathartic poetry about djinn and monkeys. Of course, this means I felt compelled to try.


A little ways before the beginning
we were chimpanzees mostly, picking fleas
and lice and twigs from limbs and pelts,
saying hello, goodbye and also
please I like you will you look after me have a nice day
with a simple handjob for a small pink dick.

A little ways after the beginning,
God said, Look, see what We have made,
This is Man; and he made the angels bow
and also the djinn bowed tight under red wax seal
though they were smoke and fire.

That's what we do now, we put fire
into bottles, fire into lamps, crushed
tight under the breastbone so we don't remember
how to say hello goodbye I love you
Embrace is awkward smashed against your rib
and touch impossible invisible I have
a crystal coffin.

Comments

[jakemainstreet.livejournal.com]

Oh, I like it. And you put the jinn in their proper context.

One criticism: "have a nice day" seems like a particularly modern American service-economy thing for a chimpanzee to communicate to a fellow chimpanzee.

[ursula]

I sort of wanted that excessively intellectual form of disgust conveyed by distaste for supermarkets . . .

My brother-in-law was mistaken for a djinn as a young man, because he has grey eyes and used to go running in the mountains of Iran in the early morning.

[ashfae.livejournal.com]

Good heavens. I never thought anyone would try it, much less succeed. You are nifty. =)

[ursula]

Glad you enjoyed it ;)

I realized after I wrote this that I am genuinely angsty about orangutans in zoos, but that seemed like a dangerous effort.

[ashfae.livejournal.com]

Writing about genuine angst is very tricky. But yes, I liked your poem very much. =)

[ursula]

Yay!

Have you read the AS Byatt short story about djinn?

[ashfae.livejournal.com]

It was the inspiration for my djinn poem, actually; I dedicated it to her in a desperate attempt to not appear too plagerizing. *sheepish gryn*

[ursula]

Just pretend you're too postmodern for plagiarism to count ;)