The Chained Muse

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The Chained Muse
The Chained Muse
Water Spell (Reading)

Water Spell (Reading)

By Johnny Payne

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David Gosselin
Nov 24, 2023
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The Chained Muse
The Chained Muse
Water Spell (Reading)
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Egypt Home Interior, ca 1865

Featured in our New Lyre Winter 2024 issue. Paid subscribers get instance access to all New Lyre online content and archives, along with full access to Age of Muses, where we explore the current state of twenty-first century culture, creativity and art.

Water Spell

A crocodile waits on the far sandbank.
I wade through waves, while my beloved casts
a water spell, a verbal shield to flank
my naked form against the river’s blast
in rainy season, mud roiling the waves.
The floodwaters, like land under my feet
Let me cross toward the perilous one who saves
me from the dangers she herself creates
reminding me her love’s what makes me strong.
For all I know, it’s her, not crocodiles
waiting to eat me, after long straight strides
take me right to her bosom, to her smile.
Thanks to her incantations, I step deep,
eager, as water murmurs, half-asleep.

Read more of Johnny’s poetry below.

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David Gosselin
·
November 26, 2023
Access Entire New Lyre PDF Archive

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Water Spell & Other Poetry

David Gosselin
·
November 22, 2023
Water Spell & Other Poetry

Featured in New Lyre Winter 2023 Water Spell A crocodile waits on the far sandbank. I wade through waves, while my beloved casts a water spell, a verbal shield to flank my naked form against the river’s blast in rainy season, mud roiling the waves. The floodwaters, like land under my feet

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