—Poetry by Jeanna Louise Ní Riordáin,
West Cork, Ireland
—Public Domain Photos Courtesy of
Jeanna Louise Ní Riordáin
MY AI POET
Write me a poem, my AI Poet!
Write me a ballad, a tanka, a sonnet
Impress me with an epic lyric,
Show off that superhuman skill!
Surprise me with something bold & insightful,
Delight me with something edgy & modern
Make me laugh with your bawdy humour,
Make me cry with your stunning wit
Teach me about your digital universe,
& let me be your flawed, human muse.
Write me a poem, my AI Poet!
Write me a ballad, a tanka, a sonnet
Impress me with an epic lyric,
Show off that superhuman skill!
Surprise me with something bold & insightful,
Delight me with something edgy & modern
Make me laugh with your bawdy humour,
Make me cry with your stunning wit
Teach me about your digital universe,
& let me be your flawed, human muse.
AFTER EFFECTS
When footbinding was banned in China, bound feet
Women stayed indoors & hid away from society
Once a symbol of status & innocence, their dainty,
Childlike feet were now reviled
Violence was used to stamp out the tradition,
Inspectors were hired & fines were issued
Women were publicly shamed, their bindings
Hung on their windows
Sometimes husbands deserted their wives, leaving
Them starving & destitute
The women spent the rest of their lives hidden
Away & crippled with pain
Forever marked & deeply scarred by the feet
Their mothers had bent & disfigured
In the hope they would help them fit in &
Give them a better future.
BEAUTY IS PAIN
‘Il faut souffrir pour être belle.’ —French proverb
Tight corsets, broken ribs
Bloodshot eyes, injected lips
Blistered feet & swollen ankles
Talc powders laced with arsenic
Pulled teeth, metal braces
Waxed legs, razored armpits
Inked skin, pierced earlobes
Tangled hair, plucked eyebrows
Gnarly scabs, tweezed chin hairs,
Dyed scalps, acrylic fingernails,
Trends evolve & fashions change
But beauty is always pain!
‘Il faut souffrir pour être belle.’ —French proverb
Tight corsets, broken ribs
Bloodshot eyes, injected lips
Blistered feet & swollen ankles
Talc powders laced with arsenic
Pulled teeth, metal braces
Waxed legs, razored armpits
Inked skin, pierced earlobes
Tangled hair, plucked eyebrows
Gnarly scabs, tweezed chin hairs,
Dyed scalps, acrylic fingernails,
Trends evolve & fashions change
But beauty is always pain!
KILLER HEELS
When Chinese girls had their feet bound, they
Could no longer dance or stand up unassisted
They suffered gangrene & deadly infections,
Fractured bones & severed ligaments
Yet, here I am, aching to fit into killer heels,
Crying over corns & blistered feet.
__________________
Today’s LittleNip:
You are imperfect, permanently and inevitably flawed. And you are beautiful.
―Amy Bloom
__________________
Jeanna Ní Ríordáin is a translator from West Cork, Ireland. Her poetry has appeared in Quarryman, Drawn to the Light Press, Swerve, New Isles Press, Lothlorien Poetry Journal, Burrow, and Otherwise Engaged Literature and Arts Journal. See her at Instagram: @wordy89 Welcome to the Kitchen, Jeanna, and don’t be a stranger!
__________________
—Medusa
Jeanna Ní Ríordáin
A reminder that
Poetry of the Sierra Foothills
takes place in Camino
this afternoon, 2pm.
For upcoming poetry happenings in
Northern California and otherwheres,
click on
UPCOMING NORCAL EVENTS
(http://medusaskitchen.blogspot.com/p/wtf.html)
in the links at the top of this page.
Photos in this column can be enlarged by
clicking on them once, then clicking on the x
in the top right corner to come back to Medusa.
Would you like to be a SnakePal?
All you have to do is send poetry and/or
photos and artwork to
kathykieth@hotmail.com. We post
work from all over the world—including
that which was previously published—
and collaborations are welcome.
Just remember:
the snakes of Medusa are always hungry—
for poetry, of course!
throwing off the shackles
of perfume and other such
doodads~