“Demonic Duo” by Jennifer Lagier

Songs of Eretz Poetry Review is pleased to present “Demonic Duo” by Jennifer Lagier, PhD.  Dr. Lagier is a teacher with California Poets in the Schools and co-editor of Homestead Review. She holds a PhD in Computing Technology in Education from Nova Southeastern University, an MA in English from California State University at Stanislaus, and an MLIS from the University of California at Berkeley. She currently serves as an instructional librarian at Monterey Peninsula College.

Lagier’s work has appeared online and in print, nationally and internationally. She has published thirteen books, most recently: Scene of the Crime (Evening Street Press), Harbingers (Blue Light Press), and Camille Abroad (FutureCycle Press). FutureCycle Press will publish Like a B Movie, a full-length collection of her poetry, in 2018. Visit Dr. Lagier at www.jlagier.net.

Demonic Duo

Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, July 2015

Don’t let cartoon eyes

and toothy smiles fool you —

these soulless, skirted demons

relentlessly track and torment

not-so-innocent victims.

Get on the wrong side of their deity,

and they’ll transform you to insects.

A former incarnation of myself

must have outraged an Indian god

by eating filet mignon,

drinking too much wine,

refusing to cover my head

inside a temple.

Despite protective art museum glass,

I feel them plotting a take-down,

tracking me as I pause to examine

a multi-armed Vishnu.

Marked, a woman on the run,

I’ll be dismembered if apprehended,

payback for irreverence—ritualistic reprisal.

--Jennifer Lagier

Poet’s Notes:  This poem was inspired by a trip to the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco during a writing retreat with other poets from Blue Light Press. I loved the whimsy of inventing a fantastical, humorous story to accompany solemn, ancient artwork captured in the accompanying digital image.

Editor’s Note:  While most ekphrastic pieces stop at mere description, this one goes a step further and makes it personal.  The speaker tells an interesting story, and what goes through her head as she gazes at the artwork goes through the head of the reader too.