Vetiver (Project 9 - Somatic Poetics) by Colin Edgar

written while overwhelming my senses with the smell of vetiver oil
----
fragrant, herbal, earthy
green, white
clean.

A spear out of mud
a spear, a blade
To cure your illness
To cleave through disease
Penetrates you.
Eviscerates you.

When you were a child
and scared of sickness,
the grassy comfort,
sharp and verdant:
a scalpel, or blade

Wade knee-deep into the stream

Bog bodies, kept fresh,
kept company eternally
To the end of the tide
To the end of human time

There, knee-deep, in summer or spring,

Sharp blades in bunches like fists
that offer you water
for drinking
or drowning

Sunken and seeped; lemony

A pang of joy
A painful blow
The shock and shiver
The dark pleasure-giver
Ignites the ancient and fresh

Old age, unwind
Wrinkled in time
Always asleep
Inside of me