Page 23 - Sacred Nude

Jessica K Ballantyne
Psychosomatic
Graphite, spraypaint and wax pencil
on paper
59.4 x 84.1cm
Totem
Francesca Simonelli

The wax of my past,
Hot streams
Of liquescent regret.
I celebrate my transformation.
Sammadava-
As a rite
Of paradoxical passage.
How pleasure
And delight
Could have us all
In an inexplicable
And inescapable rut.
How to reconcile
The mess of sex?
I reclaim all that I lost
Along the way.
I let go of what was never mine.
I burn
Beneath the flowering flame
Of temptress as she comes
To die
So that I may live.

I am transmuted
Between the rigid thighs