Scarlet Ode

by Gwynne Garfinkle


My garden has thorns
And wears the color of rage

Splash of satiety
Song of fruition

A woman of letters
In scarlet

My hair is like the snake's
Flicking tongue

Color of the ripe apple
With its know-it-all juice

The world is blood-bright
It flows with a lilt

My meat and drink
My utter lack of guilt




Gwynne Garfinkle lives in Los Angeles. Her recent fiction and poetry can be found in Strange Horizons and Aberrant Dreams. Excerpts from her as yet unpublished "vampire Sylvia Plath" novel, The Posthumous Life of Eleanor Bell, appear in A Fly in Amber and Thaneros. Her favorite fruit is pomegranate, though she also loves tangerines.


Back to the Table of Contents.