"Phoenix -Tongue" by Troy's Work Table.
Sidewalk chalk wash, sidewalk chalk, chalk pastels, and charcoal pencil on 12" x 12" concrete board.
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"What some refer to as love / others burn as fuel." and "One egg we cooked in the center. The rest we saved." —from "Phoenix Tongue" by Michael Schmeltzer, as found in Blood Song
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This is another poem that is not only for Lent, but of Lent. In fact, it starts with an epigraph of Genesis 3:19—"...for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return."
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The (divine) fire that scars often returns us to the (mortal) ash and dust that we are.
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This sonnet contains so much that it needs to be read many times. That is the only way to unpack everything within.
Sex. Death. Family relations. Childhood memories. The Towers from 9/11. Cruelty and care residing together. Loss. Joy and suffering. But mostly suffering.
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The poem is the first in the collection and acts as a gate for the rest. Be careful when you enter that you aren't consumed. (Perhaps that wouldn't be so bad, though. We dabble in being born once more.)
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In addition to the imagery of the poem, I couldn't shake the notion of the speaker being the Titan Atlas. (And I don't even know from whence this notion comes.) Here Atlas holds the egg of the world, cooked in the flames that "set the nest ablaze."
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