“Undressed by a Smile” © Bill Wolak

 

The Silk Suit

The silk suit with the rosebud design
Is legendary in its own right.
A bit of an oxymoron, considering
The private facilities through which we view things through our own
          unique lens
The general sense of weird knots
Connected invisibly amongst the saguaros
And other plants with flowers and pricks.
The stained blueprint of major carnivals
Triumphant against the second floor stompers
Treading carefully through the tilted turbulence
Of the territorial dragons and bigoted bunnies
The hungry creatures with wings and scales, feathers and fangs
Seeking comeuppance for some forgotten sin
Created by the silk suit that was stolen from a thousand spider webs
Which is worn with a dissonant pride
By the wrecking yard of hospital Earth agents and reptilian aliens
Who are running this potential simulation, this matrix
This garden of soiled bloomings
Resistant to the thunderous footprints of our ancestors
Yellow butterflies, children’s laughter, finding your first true love
Choosing, despite the tight chords of conflict and consumerism
To live and die and live once again.

 

Melissa Feuerstein: “I am a New York native and hold a BA in English, Summa Cum Laude, from Northern Arizona University. I have been published in a few small zines, and my short story, “Ghost,” was published in a literary magazine of women writers by the University of Alabama at Birmingham. I currently work in web design and have a renewed passion for creative writing and submitting to publications.”

Bill Wolak is a poet, collage artist, and photographer who has published his eighteenth book of poetry entitled All the Wind’s Unfinished Kisses with Ekstasis Editions. His collages and photographs have appeared recently in the 2024 Dirty Show in Detroit, the 2024 Rochester Erotic Arts Festival, the 2020 International Festival of Erotic Arts (Chile), the 2020 Seattle Erotic Art Festival, the 2018 Montreal Erotic Art Festival, and Naked in New Hope 2018. He was a featured artist in the book Best of Erotic Art (London, 2022).