a Glosa

And like the cat I have nine times to die.
This is Number Three.
What a trash
To annihilate each decade.

Even amidst fierce flames
The golden lotus can be planted,
So let the mystified crowds begin amassing!
Again she will rise like a climbing rose,
Lady Lazarus, lifted from soil, decomposed
But lifted, living, sepulcher sprung; she cries–
I have risen again, once in every ten!
Thrusting upon the crowd a demure smile,
Reminding them with coy cast of amber eye:
And like a cat I have nine times to die.

Blame not her tempest-mind for the tragedy,
For amidst those flames of madness and insecurity
Her grave-bloom yet sprouts its mystery–
Her verse, a curse: a blue flame filament
Unfurled from the nadir, a testament
Suckled on the siren song of Lorelei.
From the great beneath she claims: I will rise
Yet again, to bid you recant and to reclaim
A lyrical promise penned in misery:
This is only number three.

So amass, friends, ’round the funerary shroud
Whisper in hushed tones, cry her name out loud,
Raucous, the voices of the ever growing crowd–
Sylvia rises, mournful of mind, swelling with soul
Just as she was when her cadaver went cold.
Gilded ivory bones as fragile as glass
She is your fate, she is your wraith, she is Lady
Lazarus, come to walk again amongst us.
Rekindled, she whispers from the dust and ash,
What a trash.

Resurrect Sylvia and all her sylphs:
Eva on the spiral stair, the stasis of Ariel.
She will come as a star among the narcissi,
Come penning verse of bitter strawberries.
Also bearing these, the things this era needs–
A tumult of a heart that shall never degrade
The grave discontinuities, subtle complexities.
Resurrect Sylvia and all her sensitivities;
Knowing she is destined to die, decay and fade
To annihilate each decade.

***
Kate Bergen is 28 years old and lives in Westchester County, New York, where she works for an International Non-Profit Organization. Her works have recently been published in literary magazines such as 2RiverView and The Battered Suitcase and have won acclaim in the Greenburgh Poetry Contest. She is an annual participant in NaNoWrimo and ScriptoWrimo. When not glued to her keyboard, she enjoys music festivals, nature, singing and painting.