Read the first poem from Jeanetta Rich's BLACK VENUS FLY TRAP

Deluge is very proud to have published, last year, a collection of poems by Jeanetta Rich: BLACK VENUS FLY TRAP. For the readers among you who have not yet risked falling prey to this writing's mordant ferocity and limpid slippery allure, here is LOVE POEM, which appears as the opening piece in Rich's book.

 

LOVE POEM

the finders fee to recruit a black woman for porn is 100.00

dollars

for a white woman 225.00

you say we can make big bucks

asian and latina women are grouped into the $225

denomination as well

 

 

I'm sorry

that the tones of my Skin are far too warm for you to make

any substantial profit from

 

 

faces are obsolete and ass is all the rage in Hollywood

 

 

you sneered

               under breath

then apologized

                for the bad joke

 

 

I can't help but to give into your

Auburn abyss of man.

I fell for you

despite your bipolar disorder

and sexual deviant behavior

 

 

But the cock ring was a bit much for me

 

 

I'm sorry

my stop meant

no

not harder

 

 

you're unrelenting

and stripped down to nothing

              the wide window

open

with a lovely view of an

alleyway

if dumpsters could talk

they'd laugh

uncomfortably

at the thumping

my chin

  hammering

against the peephole

 

 

I'm sorry

 

this wasn't supposed to be a rape poem

it was supposed to be a love poem

 

          I never get to write those

 

                 i know it's My fault

just like the last time

just like every time

and

I'm sorry

 

what I wanted to say:

 

In The Galaxy before this,

I am certain of our existence.

You were a supreme ruler.

The fire that spout from the middle of your forehead

welded me from scrap brass

You asked God to give me life

and he did.

We lived in the forest

and on our wedding night

a [rival tribesman]

stole me away

 

Before you killed him,

he stabbed you in the   abdomen. 

Then you found me

My garments soiled and split in two.

 

for centuries this same body

has been a constant   spoil of war

and so you slit my throat....

 

Tell me am I worthless?

 

here we are now

should've known better.

should've recognized you as soon as you took off your shirt

the scar now a perfectly symmetrical keloid

 

my shoulder blades break across the plane of your chest

I can't breathe but I manage to call on Jesus and bite my

tongue

 

as if I wasn't supposed to utter his name

I hear God laughing at me

 

"I told you to stay away from that crazy ass nigga."