"Since I have stuck my tongue. . ." [by Jason Camlot]

Since I have stuck my tongue…

Since I have stuck my tongue in your wet cup,

since I have felt my head between your hands,

since I have sniffed the perfume of your glands,

released into your bloodstream, out your duct,

since I have sniffed the sweet breath of your soul,

since I have sought it, buried in shadows,

since I have loved you as Vincent van Gogh

yearned to love that “model,” Rachel, with his whole

being, so much so he put his own ear

into her hand and said, “Keep this object

carefully.”  Since I know you don’t object
to engaging in nightly, oral prayer,

I can tell Time, with his dire ashen cup,

what to do with it, where to shove it up.

After Victor Hugo's "Puisque j'ai mis ma levre"

-- Jason Camlot

Jason Camlot has written three collections of poetry, The Animal Library (DC Books, 2001), Attention All Typewriters (DC Books, 2005), and most recently, The Debaucher (Insomniac Press, 2008). His critical works include Language Acts: Anglo-Quebec Poetry, 1976 to the 21st Century (Vehicule, 2007), co-edited with Todd Swift, and Style and the Nineteenth-Century British Critic (Ashgate, 2008). His poems and essays have appeared in such journals as New American Writing, London Magazine, Postmodern Culture, English Literary History, and Jacket. He is the poetry editor of the Punchy Writers Series, a new imprint of Montreal small press DC Books, and an associate editor of Matrix magazine. He received his Ph.D from Stanford and is the chair of the English Department at Concordia University in Montreal, where he was born and raised. 

Comments

[Jenny Factor]

what a beautiful carpe diem poem

[DL]

I agree with Jenny. The writer manages to be as sensually ardent as he is clever. I don't know the original, but I can imagine the reaction of Victor Hugo: "you go, guy."