Cigar box, mouth opened, spirits strewn on the floor,
star seed, electric, flows through young, well-worn veins;
exit beckons from behind an unseen door.

Spaces and lines, gravid with notes, five by four,
hand in hand they clasp and form chord chains.
Cigar box, mouth opened, spirits strewn on the floor.

Bridges arch backs over sleep in wordless, jagged dream dolor
while nerves clenched between vertebrae teeth spasm, sing with pain;
exit beckons from behind an unseen door.

The rise and fall of words, pouring from a broken core
Sail on the buzz and scream of current possessing strings.
Cigar box, mouth opened, spirits strewn on the floor

joins notebooks, stuffed and crumpled, pages scribbled and sore.
Liquid heaven promises with the needle and the sting;
exit beckons from behind and unseen door.

Left is a daughter with star seed in her veins,
echoes of gravel-edged voices and guitar strings,
and a cigar box, mouth opened, spirits strewn on the floor.
Exit beckoned from behind an unseen door.

Written 4/12/11
© 2011 Nicole Nicholson. All Rights Reserved.
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Considering that April 5 was the seventeenth anniversary of Kurt Cobain‘s death, he’s been on my mind a bit lately. One of the songs on Pearl Jam’s 1995 album, “Immortality”, has also been going through my head lately. Some of the lyrics, especially the reference of the cigar box on the floor (a cigar box of drug paraphernalia was found near Cobain’s body), could be read as references to Cobain; however, lead singer and lyricist Eddie Vedder insists that the song is not about Cobain. Either way, the image of the cigar box is haunting, and I chose that to help craft this villanelle. I hope you enjoyed the poem.

-Nicole

“http://www.wordcatalystmagazine.com/pages7/nicholsonptry7.html#anchor1121499.

To read more about Phan Thi Kim Phuc and the famous photo that inspired this poem, check out the article about her on Wikipedia.

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