Marriage Proposal<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Woman, I crossed twelve borders to bring you this grilled cactus drizzled with fire,
\nthis body covered in sawdust, this altar of saltwater framed with barbed wire.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m a stranger everywhere, so we\u2019ll have to make our home in no-man\u2019s land.
\nYou booby trap the borders with cow bells, and I\u2019ll build the Forbidden<\/p>\n
City and a pole to hang our rice paper flag. When the rain in June chews
\nthrough it, we\u2019ll draw lines in the sand, and hang another, never lose<\/p>\n
our earthly bearings. Watch me chase away mountain lions with mime.
\nYou can tend the fire in your suit of mud, plaster the walls with lime.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll cook up some pearlash and make you glass to shatter when I\u2019m a beast. I\u2019ll atone
\nwith my tongue, sweep the shards and become the moon, your own glowing stone<\/p>\n
slurping at the tides. Hurry. Say yes. I want to stuff you with sugared almonds.
\nThe mice are chewing through the bag of birdseed. The sun burns high. Holland\u2019s<\/p>\n
almost underwater. Make your life with me. Let\u2019s build it tall and wide,
\nset it ablaze, and forget to reproduce. Say yes. A quick nod is fine.<\/p>\n
I want to wear you like a second skin. Look, here, at the dark spot, you
\nunzip. Say yes, woman, then lay with me in the shadows of this old yew.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
“Marriage Proposal” is from Jodie Marion’s forthcoming chapbook, Another Exile on the 45th Parallel<\/em> (Floating Bridge Press, 2012).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Jodie Marion\u2019s<\/a> chapbook, Another Exile on the 45th Parallel<\/em>,<\/a> is forthcoming from Floating Bridge Press<\/a> in October 2012. Recent poems have appeared in Best New Poets 2011<\/em>, Narrative Magazine<\/em>, and The New Guard Literary Review<\/em>. In 2010 she was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She teaches writing at Mt. Hood Community College and raises four wild children with her husband in Vancouver, WA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Marriage Proposal Woman, I crossed twelve borders to bring you this grilled cactus drizzled with fire, this body covered in sawdust, this altar of saltwater framed with barbed wire. I\u2019m a stranger everywhere, so we\u2019ll have to make our … Continue reading