And What Is Sexy About an Explosion You Weren’t Expecting?
Until the eruption of AD 79, the people of Pompeii did not know Mount Vesuvius was a volcano.
– “Pompeii: A Lost City”, Sally Odgers
Inch by inch
blue veins explore
your surface.
Imagine the kitten
beneath the old tom.
It is like this with love
ugly love rears
ugly legs splayed
all over someplace
they shouldn’t be.
Shouldn’t be, this love.
Picture nubile–
can you see the vowels
exploding like hot lava
from a volcano
the villagers didn’t even know
was lurking
just beneath the surface
while they ate their pea-
cock roasted with live
birds inside? The fluttering
started one young woman choking.
She writes you from her ash bed
deep below the road you walk today.
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The image of the peacock stuffed with roast birds is so perfect…..and the last two lines are fab. From love to volcano. Good one.
The last lines got me too… I love the idea of her writing from her ash bed – a wonderful ending
(and if the villagers of pompeii knew what lust festered in the ground beneath their feet, they would have tried to tap it long ago.)
(or that’s me, projecting my reader self onto the poor unsuspecting villagers.)
i like the line: “it is like this with love” and i like that it comes after we’ve already been introduced to some of the metaphors.
Wonderful details — I really like the way you construct this movement up to “she writes you from her ash bed.”
Dividing up pea-cock was an inspired decision. I love how you’ve drawn together the elements of volcano, surprise, eruption, and sex.