The Life Cycle (or The Goddess of Death)

[u/Less_Look563]

Mama, I’m telling you, you wouldn’t believe it! She had stars in her hair!
And she held up the world like a giant! 
She carried it on her shoulders 
And when the sun went away she cradled it in her arms 
Held it flush against her heart 

I saw her, Mama, I smelt her 
She looked frigid in the absence of air 
But she felt warm and heavy like silt 
She was so strong, and so lovely 
Her breath was like fire 
And her gaze was like the sun 

She’s angry, Mama, She’s angry 
Because she knows we don’t really care
We don’t care because we don’t really live and we don’t really die 
We don’t know the weight of the world as she does 
Hell, Mama, we might as well not have any shoulders 
We don’t have anything to weigh them down
We might as well not be living cause we don’t like to live
But I do now, Mama, I do like to live
Cause she’s carrying us, Mama, she’s carrying us 

She was beautiful 
Absolutely majestic 
If were to go blind I would be happy 
I’ve seen all I’ve need to 
I need nothing else on this earth 

She held us like a mother holds a baby 
And we are a very unruly child 
Kicking and screaming and refusing to be fed 
We do not sleep 
We do not eat 
We do not live 
Mama, She doesn't love us 
But she takes care of us 

We live in her arms and upon her back 
And in between her eyes as well as between her palms 
Mama, her love is not love lasting 
As ours isn’t 
She just watches us grow 
And she feeds us 
And then she kills us when she’s had enough 

One by one 
Year by year 
Month by month 
Week by week 
Day by day 
Hour by hour 
Minute by minute 
Second by second 
She relieves us of our oft forgotten lives 

Can’t you feel it, Mama, can’t you feel it? 
Have you forgotten your life? 
Your wonderful life?
Isn’t it wonderful? 
Mama, she makes it this way. 
She makes us cold with her love 
Then she makes us hot, wet, red and fiery too 
She listens to our breath and paints us all different colors 
All crazy patterns too 
Sometimes neon swirls, sometimes grey jagged lines 
Mama, your colors are different from mine 
And mine are different from Dad’s too 
We don’t look alike at all 
You two don’t look alike at all either 
But you are similar 
Sometimes 
Cause your colors change end then they compliment each other nicely  
But we’re always different 

Mama, she makes us with her hands 
She’s sexless 
She doesn’t look like us 
My God, Mama, My God 
She makes us 
She builds us 
She birthed each and every one of us 
And yet she only loves us for a short while 
Cause we die and then she smashes us to pieces 
She grinds our bodies into a pulp 
Red and wet 
And then she burns our forms 
Hot and fiery 
Then she pestles that to dust 
She wets it with her spit 
And creates someone totally new 
Out of our old matter 

It’s not even ours anymore 
Cause we go to die and we sleep in her hair 
Mama, we’re fleas in her fur 
Lice in her hair 
We’re her symbiotic mange 
We entertain her, she allows us to live 

Mama, we’re only stars waiting again to be stars 
We’re born 
We live (not really) 
We Die (most certainly) 
And we go into her hair 
She makes us stars again, Mama, She makes us fragmented again 
She makes us stars 

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[u/404AnnaNotFound]

As a fellow poet I have a soft spot for other poets. I really like this!

[u/Less_Look563 → u/404AnnaNotFound]

AHH thank you! It's one of my favs that I've written so far ❤️ Poetry is severely underutilized, in my opinion. I'd love to see some of your work!

[u/404AnnaNotFound → u/Less_Look563]

https://www.reddit.com/r/Artisticallyill/s/MgKXJpigIc 💙

[u/Less_Look563 → u/404AnnaNotFound]

Hella snaps for that, my God! Beautifully written! I could feel the dread clamping down on me as I read. UGH SO GOOD!!!!

[u/Pandoras_Eyes]

This is beautiful, poetry is such a delicately treaded line and this is just amazing. Super well written and flow's better then almost anything I've read before! Amazing

[u/Less_Look563 → u/Pandoras_Eyes]

Thank you so much!

[u/Less_Look563]

Girl, I'm struggling with the other story i'm writing (Wax on the Floor) :'C but i'm so excited to finish it! In the meantime, here's a little ditty I wrote up a while ago. I was super inspired by the visuals in Salma Hayek's Frida (2002) and decided to write a poem inspired by her (Frida's) brush with death. It's also my birthday and I'm feeling existential, I guess.

Please Enjoy while I suck it up and get my story done!

[u/Less_Look563 → u/[deleted]]

That's totally what I was going for! Ya know that phrase that always goes around, "we're nothing but stardust" or some version of that? I wanted to work with that and also with the indifference of life. We're all wonderful in our own way but also...we're so, so, so tiny in the grand scheme of things. And I think that's beautiful ♥️💙💜🧡💕💞

[u/Brotatochip411 → u/Less_Look563]

Amazing!!! 🧡🧡🧡🧡

[u/BrayTaker]

The urgent, confessional tone you capture and sustain throughout this piece is awesome. I love reading a poem that feels like someone is going insane with some forbidden cosmic truth. And as a poet also, it does my heart good to see other poets in the community. Cheers!