we used to say you were a girl comprised of ether unable to stay tethered, buoyant, above the fray rising higher than any helium, eclipsing the energies of ten; pulse hammering in wild jack rabbit heart bulging eyes readied, as if the rest of the world was on pause, and you, a blur of ill focused energies charged the weather vane to silver mercury. we used to say you were a woman made mad when paranoia turned you cruel, hungry for pain and a lusting to conquer and shine left you radiant destroyer of reliability, unfit to make promises you never kept an echoing flit of attention, like radar without programming search lights in darkness, sometimes foe, sometimes friend gaining armies in the arc of your flight, you’d go to war for breakfast and find yourself dying on the battle field by night. we used to say you were kind even as you were cold but sometimes you’d stay iced-over, long past winter’s cease of light you’d change into someone we didn’t recognize, who couldn’t hear our entreaty for your return, from the hot brightness and deep plunge into frost, where listless and angering you’d rage against lost heights like Icarus touched the molten burn of his wings and cursed the gods, so you cursed us, with your menace and delusion, until months passed and you woke, shaken from pinched spell returned, expecting us to love you, which we always did though our wounds grew deeper with each encroaching season, with every time you threw us off like a wild horse removes its bridle and, in its fury, crushes rider beneath thrashing stampede.
Photo by Camila Quintero Franco on Unsplash
Born in Europe, Candice Louisa Daquin is of Sephardi French/ Egyptian descent. Daquin was the Publishing Director at the U.S. Embassy (London) before becoming a Psychotherapist. Daquin is Senior Editor at Indie Blu(e) Publishing, a feminist micro-press and Editorial Partner with Raw Earth Ink. She’s also Writer-in-Residence for Borderless Journal, Editor of Poetry & Art for The Pine Cone Review and Poetry Editor for Parcham Literary Magazine. Daquin’s own poetic work takes its form from the confessional women poets of the 20th century as well as queer authors writing from the 1950’s onward. Her career(s) teaching critical thinking and practicing as a psychotherapist have heavily influenced her writing. As a queer woman of mixed ethnicity and passionate feminist beliefs concerning equality, Daquin’s poetry is her body of evidence.
Read more at The Feathered Sleep.
Indie Blu(e) Publishing 