Water - Karen Mary Berr

Le Bernin

 

This woman who meets me
in mirrors, who you alone truly
undressed – she is out of reach.
Her contours are translucent,
they burn in flames
like cellophane in the blind air.
Your hands are the only borders
I remember, they outline everything
I am and everything I ever was.
I am the line of red ocher
painted on your grave, curving
each letter of your name.
No touch alters your touch

How much piety is there inside
a woman’s body when it sighs ?
Each time you came, above
and below me, I vanished
into that one sound which claimed
my body was no longer here.

The warmth gone, the unborn child.

I am, extend my thirst —

 

Someone new

screeshort from the video From Eden

 

I wake at the first cringe of morning
And my heart's already sinned
Only blue or black days
You knew who I was with every step that I ran to you

Would things be easier if there was a right way?
Honey, there is no right way

There's an art to life's distractions
To somehow escape the burning weight
The art of scraping through
Some like to imagine
The dark caress

 

 

Arsonist's Lullaby

Karim Hobeika

 

Staring into open flame
You soon find you have few choices
All you have is your fire
And the place you need to reach
Don't you ever tame your demons
But always keep 'em on a leash

 

In a week

Crédits photographiques Maurice Kodeih - recolorisée

 

We'll lay here for years or for hours
Your hand in my hand, so still and discreet
So long, we'd become the flowers
And they'd find us in a week
When the weather gets hot
When the buzzards get loud
After the insects have made their claim
After the foxes have known our taste
After the raven has had his say
I'll be home with you, I'll be home with you

 

To be alone

Crédits photographiques Karim Hobeika

 

Never feel too good in crowds
With folks around        when they're playing
The anthems of rape culture loud
Crude and proud          creatures baying

Honey, when you kill the lights, and kiss my eyes
I feel like a person for a moment of my life
But you don't know what hell you put me through

 

Sedated

 
Crédits photographiques Karim Hobeika

 

Just a little rush, babe        To feel dizzy, to derail the mind of me
Just a little hush, babe         My veins are busy but my heart's in atrophy
Any way to distract and sedate       Adding shadows to the walls of the cave

I keep catching little words but the meaning's thin
I'm somewhere outside my life, babe
So we're slaves to any semblance of touch
Adding shadows to the walls of the cave

Darling don't you stand there watching       won't you       come and save me from it
Darling don't you join in       you're supposed to         drag me away from it

 

From Eden

 

Babe, there's something tragic about you, something so magic about you
There's something lonesome about you, something so wholesome about you
There's something wretched about this, something so precious about this
There's something broken about this, get closer to me

No tired sighs, no rolling eyes, no irony
No "who cares", no vacant stares
Honey, you're familiar, like my mirror years ago
Idealism sits in prison, chivalry fell on its sword
A rope in hand, for your other man to hang from a tree