Wednesday, May 13, 2015

#100 -- Poem by Jeri Thompson



The women and music contest takes a new turn with Jeri Thompson's poem inspired by Sia's "Chandelier."


Chandelier… One Interpretation
                               (35 years later, 
                                            for Sia)


I was the girl
Hanging onto the night
Clawing at the moon and stars
To stop their rotation.

Stoli on the rocks, six nights a week,
Dim Hollywood haunts,
Did nothing to blur the mirror’s
Lazy-eyed gaze back
At everyone’s good-time call.

Party girls don’t get hurt?
I gave myself away so many times
Looking for my treasure within strangers
Drought-fisted fingers and empty upturned hands.

I don’t give up easily (stubborn? probably), yet
All the bottomless cocktails and swinging from chandeliers
Did nothing to quell the rage of solitude
Inside all those vast, star-filled nights starving for touch…
Then next mornings with hangover-eyes, searching for my keys
                                                                                 and panties.

Tomorrow always comes, even if you don’t see the sun.
We all find our way, eventually, mapped out
In the gaze of that lazy-eyed stranger in our own mirror.
Soon, but not soon enough, you will no longer need the night.

 ---------------------

This poem previously appeared in Cadence Collective (December, 2014).

And here is Sia's "Chandelier":  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vjPBrBU-TM

This video is quite eerie.


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