the thirtieth year

[Atti]

i kissed the virgin,
as a neon serpent in third person.

rhinestone bed posts rose from the rubble
as cathedrals
in a church of disgust.

you sprawled your ivory
skin
across the alter
and when i sent the dagger flying
home to that snarled birds nest
you call a ribcage
- agony bloomed
in the springs of the mattress
and opened into the room
as Chopin.

i can offer you nothing
but gravity-

i am the Wulf
in Wulf's skin.

[Emily]

i kissed the virgin,
as a neon serpent in third person.

I'll be the virgin to your serpent.
I doubt you could have written that and drawn my attention more than it did.
A nice, clean cut invitation to mayhem and bliss.

rhinestone bed posts rose from the rubble
as cathedrals
in a church of disgust.

Stunning imagery of desire waiting, in a place of worship and devotion.

you sprawled your ivory
skin
across the alter

^^ What serene pictures you paint with a blasphemous brush.

and when i sent the dagger flying
home to that snarled birds nest
you call a ribcage
- agony bloomed

Beautiful descriptions. Lovely pace. The silence before ....-agony bloomed, did it justice.
Balancing in thin air I am, based on those two words.

in the springs of the mattress
and opened into the room
as Chopin.

I feel strokes of your pen, draw notes to heaven.
Music from mattresses and love lingering in an underground paradox.
The imagery is alive, it breaths.

i can offer you nothing
but gravity-

i am the Wulf
in Wulf's skin.

atti,
You manage to transport the reader to a place they see and hear and smell and touch.
Well done atti.
I love it.

Her spirit could also be the serpent. The more I read this, the more I could potentially find.
It's the 3rd person that makes me reflect on this idea. Interesting piece atti. Well written.
An inviting read.

***Symbolism of the number 13 --- Interesting. This is from a site I found after reading your piece.***

Number that cleans and purifies.

The number 13 brings the test, the suffering and the death. It symbolizes the death to the matter or to oneself and the birth to the spirit: the passage on a higher level of existence.

For the superstitious, this number brings the bad luck or the misfortune.

For the cabalist, the number 13 is the meaning of the Snake, the dragon, Satan and the murderer. But it is also for Christians the representative number of the Virgin Mary, she whose mission is to crush the head of Satan.

[Soule]

This was some great writing. To start. It was the perfect length. Not too short but not too long either. You did what you needed to and what the concept called for. You basically described the scene of a novel or film perfectly. The imagery in this was really crisp. I could see almost every detail as it came to mind. Which leads to me saying that the wording in this was absolutely beautiful. Couldn't complain about a single line. I especially loved these;

rhinestone bed posts rose from the rubble
as cathedrals
in a church of disgust.

and when i sent the dagger flying
home to that snarled birds nest
you call a ribcage
- agony bloomed

Some amazing stuff there. It's actually motivated me to write some poetry. Which I'm not very good at lol. Yet the motivation was still influenced by reading this. Great work my friend. Let's write together sometime.

[TheIllyricist]

i kissed the virgin,
as a neon serpent in third person.

What a way to fucking start. Enchanting opener, sinful... Tempting much like the Satan snake charming Eve. The sexual imagery comes in as another layer as a possible viewpoint to read this in. 'Third person' adding on another perspective. I wonder what that perspective might be. You as the serpent, viewing yourself outside of the body in third person. I'm filled with the imagery here, and left pondering its meaning. Em's suggestion of the woman's spirit as the serpent is but one of a few thoughtful interpretations. Your precision with word choice and word placement here is phenomenal. Not to mention the rhythmic flow just wrapping around us, coiling like the serpent and drawing us into the jaws of your beautiful, dark imagination. Also, 'kissed the virgin' in terms of the serpent suggests a potential bite. A sinking of the jaws, and so the venom flows and intoxicates... The layers here, to pack so much in with such few words is simply put: impressive.

rhinestone bed posts rose from the rubble
as cathedrals
in a church of disgust.

As I sit here listening to the words in my mind, in the horizon I witness the ground shaking as bed posts rise from fallen rubble. What a beautiful piece of imagery here. 'Church of disgust'. The visuals seam so smoothly with the conceptual. You kept with this serpent-satanic flow, throwing blasphemy upon Church settings by bringing in the sins of the bedroom.

you sprawled your ivory
skin
across the alter
and when i sent the dagger flying
home to that snarled birds nest
you call a ribcage
- agony bloomed
in the springs of the mattress
and opened into the room
as Chopin.

Man. Quite a bit to unpack here. The altars is such a smooth bridge from the previous stanza. I don't know why, but when you bring up altars and daggers I can find myself thinking of Romeo and Juliet... Mark Antony and Cleopatra... There's this twisted sense of a dark romance and madness. 'Snarled birds nest - you call a ribcage'. Snarl. Again, the word choice is so specific. It might suggest to us that you're sending the dagger into the heart. And the birds nest is the home of her heart, snarling back at you in this twisted dance. Agony blooms like a red flower. I hear Chopin's music now. Again, this stanza too can be seen as rife with imagery. Literally read this as wild, carnal sex. Your language is incredible.

i can offer you nothing
but gravity-

Nothing but gravity, nothing but grounded-ness. Thinking of Satanic imagery, gravity brings you down; so closer to the sins of Hell. Nothing but gravity, nothing but sensations and feeling. This also feels like it sums up this piece, it is everything and nothing.

i am the Wulf
in Wulf's skin.

I'm curious by the way you spell wolf with a 'u' rather than an 'o'. Wulf is Germanic, I had to go look this part up because since everything else was loaded; I figure you chose these words just as selectively. Way way way back it had a pagan element, so that's certainly one draw. You are the devil, in the devil's skin perhaps. Just such an intriguing ending to this piece.

One of the best poems I've read recently. Thank you for sharing Atti. Stunning work.

[Atti]

thanks a lot for all the feed. if I haven't returned the favor yet I will shortly. and @TheIllyricist since you noticed- the piece is a large reffrence to Harm Wulf which will also explain the title. thanks for taking the time and noticing the details