Ekphrastic Poems by Neil Ellman
Inspired by the works of Paul Klee.

 

Flower Myth

wikiart.org

 

From her petals and roots

a myth was born

how a seed became

a blushing rose

and it became

a lady in a crimson robe

with the glint of morning dew

upon her neck

and she became

the goddess of cosmos

canna and columbine

worshipped as if she were

a flower herself

in her ever-lasting spring.

 

 

 

Girl Possessed

wikiart.org

 

A girl possessed Is a girl

in possession of her soul

and the evil within

written on her face

like scars and hieroglyphs.

 

Her head swivels

on the axis of her neck

a gyroscope gone mad.

 

She levitates

as if she were a vulture

picking at a corpse

and talks in tongues

mumbling incantations

to an invisible force.

 

Her breath

the brimstone-stench

of the nether world

scorches the skin

and burns the eyes.

 

She has become

the demon

who possesses her

as she possesses it

within her heart.

 

 

 

House Spirit

the-athenaeum.org

 

Inside my house

a poltergeist

walking wooden stairs

once alive       a ghost

a waling child

born and died

within these walls 

where it had lived

for an eternity before I died

as well

the two of us

denizens          dwellers

of the night       old friends

who share this unearthly house

shadows of our former selves

crying like children  

as if we were alive.

 

 

 

Small Garden Ghost

Sotheby's

 

In the garden of my dreams

a flowering ghost  

the scent of it       a putrid rose

its life-force spent

being beautiful

for the sake of it

a moment in the sun

then withered       an old woman 

like the sun at night

once was       then ghost

of a might have been

forever rose.

 

 

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