Poem of the Day: "Metallic" by John C. Mannone, Frequent Contributor

Metallic

John C. Mannone

Under the platinum moon

your face shines nobly, soft

as satin finish, the purple

sheen on your lips haunts me,

beckons mine to yours.

Under the aurum tinted sun

your copper-spangled hair

braids fire I cannot resist.

I succumb to you, I am no

superman, my flesh is rust.

I crumble to your touch.

Poet’s Notes:  I never imagined that when I happened upon the images of copper wire and other metals, some affected by the elements (pun intended), that they would stimulate this love poem by stacking allusions of metals into metaphors. Those metals in verse 1: platinum and aluminum; and in verse 2: gold and copper are all malleable, noble and/or shiny—they all go to her characteristics, but in the last lines, we also see the narrator’s characterization with iron (in the form hard steel of superman) and as the friable rust (iron oxide) an emotionally weathered and worn man.

It is no accident that the first verse begins with a lunar reference and the second with a solar one to give a night and day or a yin and yang feel to the poem. I also wanted two verses so that the reader might feel the tension build in each half.