Agios Panteleimonas Poem by Diana Thoresen

Today the pale sea is ferocious
as if in union with your
bitter passion and death
Now it's pouring emerald rain
and I'm left stunned
at your grace dismembering
my transparent calcite bones
I reach out for your deadly
rattlesnakes and eat life
My head is embalmed inside
a layer upon layer of papery
Melaleuca bark tenderness
Pale blue rosemary flowers
are poking out of my skull
I'm tinctured, I'm dyed, I'm
remembered
I smell like a pine

See, I've become a headless one
like you like you like you

Carve the flesh out of my palms
to plant fairy red speckled fuchsites
Gouge my brown eyes out
and replace them with dreamy
verdant amazonite gemstones

My Bithynian olive tree is bleeding
ancient Thracian milk of Hecate's
sorceries and pleading for the golden
miracle of mercy for everyone