Realms of Man by Joseph Robert / Metamorphosis of Woman by Leilanie Stewart – a reversible poetry collection.

Me, myself and I… and the other.

Stale-Mate

(page 6 – Metamorphosis of Woman by Leilanie Stewart)

You were playing chess with my soul

I saw you eat the pieces

As you went along

I watched the black and white squares

Slide into the abhorrent depths

Of my subconscious

*

You took my knight, but it’s okay;

I have another

I’ll have my revenge

I’ll stamp those L-shaped patterns

All over your sadistic mind

I can see that it’s going this way

So I’ll finish it off-

I didn’t checkmate your wicked heart,

That happened long ago

And anyway, it’s too cliché

*

My pawn’s at the other side now

Wait until my Queen brings forth

A whole new reign of terror

On your brutal, tyrannical ass.

—

In Pagination

(page 2 – Realms of Man by Joseph Robert)

Pile up enough lies,

And they pay you.

*

Pay the stonemason,

And he’ll chisel what have you.

*

Forget that dame,

And you’ll live yet the while.

*

Black-lipped from guzzling newsprint,

And piping hot toner.

*

Wide-margined, double-spaced,

And big-fonted fool!

*

You cheat no one of a tree,

But the forest.

Posted by on June 29, 2012 in Poetry.

1 Comment

About Leilanie Stewart

Leilanie Stewart is an author and poet from Belfast, Northern Ireland. She has written four novels, including award-winning ghost horror, The Blue Man, as well as three poetry collections. Her writing confronts the nature of self; her novels feature main characters on a dark psychological journey who have a crisis of identity and create a new sense of being. She began writing for publication while working as an English teacher in Japan, a career pathway that has influenced themes in her writing. Her former career as an Archaeologist has also inspired her writing and she has incorporated elements of archaeology and mythology into both her fiction and poetry. In addition to promoting her own work, Leilanie runs Bindweed Magazine, a creative writing literary journal with her writer husband, Joseph Robert. Aside from publishing pursuits, Leilanie enjoys spending time with her husband and their lively literary lad, a voracious reader of sea monster books. CONNECT WITH ME ON SOCIAL MEDIA: https://mailchi.mp/75c5a1ad6956/leilanie-stewart-author-info

One response »

  1. ‘Metamorphosis of Woman/ Realms of Man’ by Leilanie Stewart and Joseph Robert | Sabotage says:
    August 24, 2013 at 9:24 AM

    […] Metamorphosis of Woman/ Realms of Man is written by husband and wife Joseph Robert and Leilanie Stewart. The pamphlet is quirky, experimental and full of personality, and the reader is prepared for this by the chapbook’s reversible format:  on one side sits Stewart’s Metamorphosis of Woman; on the other is Robert’s Realms of Man. In the middle you will find the poets’ biographies, which are charmingly vague and self-irreverent, accompanied by photographs of inanimate objects (clothes for Stewart, a screwed-up piece of paper and monochrome squares for Robert). […]

    Reply

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