15

Instinctively my fingers are outstretched,
poised to touch the rosiest apple
to tear the fruit from the loom
to feed my appetite for curiosity.
I take,
I eat.
It's flesh is bittersweet
it's bite tastes of my decay
the liquor of knowledge, a thorough depressant
trickles from my tainted lips.
My sin falls from my hand
and lies on Eden's jewelled floor
Oh I am awash with gluttonous guilt
stolen innocence,
now I am living on borrowed evil.


© 2009 Florence Challender

14

Tearing off the flesh to find,
a hidden beauty lurks inside.
Finding peace in my natural state
won't let my skeleton go to waste.
Your laws of beauty cost their lives
reason dies but aesthetics survive.
You call it fashion I call it crime
if this looks good,
then the world is blind.
How many tears to wash away
the stains I wear from yesterday?
I hunger after one throbbing desire
a phantom body draped in attire.
Your laws of beauty cost their lives,
reason dies but aesthetics survive
How many days 'til you erase
the very bodies
that shot them to fame?


© 2009 Florence Challender

13

Crimson is seeping into her cheeks,
her crown of flames licks at her face.
She watches the siren, she aches "How she
speaks with such ease, how men fall at her feet
her moves are hypnotic, but her smile speaks of sin
and he's mine!"
Her topaz eyes flicker, dissolve into lime
she can taste the bitterness in her words
as she contemplates the crime
she can feel the hot, red rapids hurtling through her veins
R-A-G-E
Choking on her eagerness to spit her acidic words
reeling as her nerves are racked, her spine shakes
H-A-T-E
Her predatory string goes with a snap, "How I
slink with such ease, how prey fall at my feet
my eyes are hypnotic, my lips tingle with sin
and he's mine!"
She marks Cupid's demise as the arrow strikes
with a skillful slice through the air,
to lacerate the flesh of the unsuspecting target
and bring her to a sanguine end
D-E-A-T-H
As the room fills with hushed words of the carmine
spillage,
she looks at the lifeless corpse
and a single blistering tear falls from her eye
R-E-G-R-E-T


© 2009 Florence Challender

12

Sunlight dances on her ivory skin,
so smooth and cool to the touch
hair so thick and wavy,
a crown in all its glory.
Eyes so perfectly shaped
the gleam that never leaves them,
a body weaving in and out
one he can truly hold onto.
Limbs so long,
lips so strong
pursed, they ache to sing.
Features sculpted without fault
beauty immune to fading
grace which withstands
the gusts that glide over
the gold crested leaves.
She's an angel,
he can see her outstretched wings
stood beneath the shedding trees.
"It's such a shame," he thinks,
"that I fell in love with one
which cannot fall as well."

How she longs to reach out,
crack the case that is her grave
embrace the lust which calls from her
rusty vessels,
and feel a fire that knows no bounds.
Lull him with soothing words,
which will tumble from the carved mouth
that teases her.
Stroke the auburn hair which bounces
so freely,
gaze into the emerald eyes which shine
so readily,
and touch the flesh that wears the scars
of life.
"Alas!" she cries,
"what is my beauty if it
can't win me a man?
I'm locked in a mere existence,
a standstill stance."


© 2009 Florence Challender

11

Each pair of apathetic eyes is a slash to the soul,
nothing stirs inside these stone hearted statues
but another hit and this boy's spirit is slain
a victim of everything, whose efforts are in vain.
They make a mockery of him,
their mouths are spitting fire
he tries to reason, they won't relent
for evil doesn't tire.
As he lies upon the ground
with seeping wounds and weeping eyes
he longs to protest, to bring fury and flame
his rage is soft, a mere creeping cry
but he feels a torrent of anger gradually arise.
This emotion is destructive, if he could harness
its might and its power..
the audience will not leave this show unscathed,
their terrible taunting has left him enraged.
He brought a storm which tore through the night
corrosive acids which fall from the heavens,
a ravenous wolf and a venomous viper
children led to their death by the devil's piper.
He makes a mockery of them,
his sky is spitting fire
they try to reason, he won't relent
for justice doesn't tire.


© 2009 Florence Challender

10 (Invidia)

Oh envy, your dissatisfaction chokes me alive
I covet for that which does not exist
for true love and ultimate truth
and a sense of belonging in an unfamiliar world.
The object of my desire is the apple of anothers' eye
but in a world of idealistic expectations
surely I am not to blame for my malcontentment?
It's not a case of great ungratefulness
which blights this barren life,
for I am an inadequate being
and not only in their eyes.


© 2009 Florence Challender

9

I have memories which drift among the debris,
and painful realisations I cannot shift
I have guilt pangs which cause so much nocturnal
discomfort.
I have regrets which eat up every accomplishment,
I have wistful fancies that keep me blindly optimistic
and a realist that keeps me not grounded,
but underground.
I have terms I'm reluctant to come to
and dreams which have morphed into delusions,
that I like to escape into..
I have wars I could win with an axe through one eye
and wars I lost before the other side even tried.
I have nagging doubts which choose to resurface
and hatred that runs so deep
my wrath whimpers to be unleashed,
I'm in pursuit of vengeance
and Thor is no match for my thunder..


© 2009 Florence Challender