17th August 2026

 

cooler breeze

the windows open

in my happy place

© Rachel Green August 2026

How you See is Who you are

How do you see Cleopatra?

Priestess? Goddess? Whore?

Widowed wife and mother

struggling to survive

inside a Patriarchal society?

Or do you see her depicted

by Elizabeth Taylor,

smuggled into Rome

in a rolled-up carpet?

Is she an aging woman

having a last fling

with the declining hero Anthony

or a Queen

fully embracing her power

and taking for her lover

the dashing warrior he once was?

© Rachel Green August 2026

16th August 2026

 

chaotic square

beset with stalls and tables

oyster faire

© Rachel Green August 2026

a poisoner;

tossed for execution

stretched across the crossbeam

of a marketplace arch.

No cries as his limbs are twisted

on the rotating terminus

for he is already sans teeth

sans tongue.

But what of the executioner?

Does he sleep easy?

Or do the cracking bones and splitting skins

inhabit his nightly hours

and does he love his wife still?

© Rachel Green August 2026

15th August 2026

 

early rewards

birdsong and cicadas

pink sky

© Rachel Green August 2026

repeated lines

extensive drawings of the figure

without erasure;

movement in a static image

is the heritage of Degas

and an unrequited love

for Giacometti

© Rachel Green August 2026

14th August 2026

 

bread consumption

leads to sudden bloating

unexpected fast

© Rachel Green August 2026

Borges

wring about the Inferno

points out that most of us

are defined by a single moment in life

and if that be the case

then let it be

the day I fell in love

with two beautiful souls

and not the time I gave a blow job

to my infant school PE teacher.

© Rachel Green August 2026

13th August 2026

 

evening class

learning a new technique

gel prints

© Rachel Green August 2026

you can teach technique

and practice until it becomes

as natural as taking breath

but mastery of the art

only comes

when the technique is left behind

and we are cast like children

on the shores of discovery

© Rachel Green August 2026

12th August 2026

 

night market

not a goblin or demon in sight

just well-few people

© Rachel Green August 2026

when sex is equated with death

sexual beings find ways

to relieve desire;

and fetishism becomes forefront.

When being gay gets you killed

and the only deviancy allowed by the state

is the exploitation of minors

and tugging off in school theatres;

safer it is to masturbate

in a room without spyware;

no tell-tale google searches;

no Alexa to report to Elon;

no Siri to tattle-tale to Bill.

just you and a rubber suit

or a wooden Icon;

a crucifix in your vagina

and a Madonna in your bum.

© Rachel Green August 2026

11th August 2026

 

coffee in bed

a birthday treat indeed

Eymet

© Rachel Green August 2026

but painting offers a glimpse of the artist;

no matter how realistic

we are looking at a subject

through the artist's eyes;

though the lens of their subjectivity;

from a viewpoint we can never copy,

a history we can never duplicate,

and a sexuality we can never experience

except through this;

the result of their creativity.

© Rachel Green August 2026