THREE Poems
Nadia de VRIES
Everything Goth Is Perverse
Who can permit themselves
to glorify darkness and pain
to beautify darkness and pain
I can do nothing with darkness and pain
I have too much of it
It is unwieldy and ugly
and financially unviable
and it is also mine, which is worse
What does a thief do with that which is theirs
I mean, morally and legally theirs
My poor subjectivity
I can’t give it away
I’m too selfish and secretive
Too mercenary and arrogant
Too clumsy and weak and dumb
I’m simply too full of
Darkness and pain
Glorious darkness and pain
Beautiful darkness and pain
to glorify darkness and pain
to beautify darkness and pain
I can do nothing with darkness and pain
I have too much of it
It is unwieldy and ugly
and financially unviable
and it is also mine, which is worse
What does a thief do with that which is theirs
I mean, morally and legally theirs
My poor subjectivity
I can’t give it away
I’m too selfish and secretive
Too mercenary and arrogant
Too clumsy and weak and dumb
I’m simply too full of
Darkness and pain
Glorious darkness and pain
Beautiful darkness and pain
Choose Your Fighter
I have received, but not eaten,
a box of chocolates.
The insides are made almost exclusively of cherry,
save for a little stone
they forgot at the factory.
a box of chocolates.
The insides are made almost exclusively of cherry,
save for a little stone
they forgot at the factory.
Aggression Quest
I found a man capable of great tenderness
and, by association, great deceit.
Yesterday morning, he broke the neck of a swan.
By evening, they’d crowned him king.
and, by association, great deceit.
Yesterday morning, he broke the neck of a swan.
By evening, they’d crowned him king.
Nadia de VRIES is the author of Dark Hour (Dostoyevsky Wannabe, 2018). She lives in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.