A Poem by Tiani Kennedy

The Kiss

 

Wrapped in his butterfly wings, she kneels on the edge of Eden. His voice, gardenias rustling. Tu es la plus belle fille du monde. Her eyes are drunk with Communion. The veins on his wings taste her silken skin as his hands drop anchors at her hips. She begs to be devoured, to whisper to him wishes made on wells. Don’t forget me. He catches her in his lips of Venus traps and they descend onto lilies floating in the valley below. Clawing through clouds, his metamorphosis comes undone. They are spun into a cocoon. Into a lily bulb they burst forth as they dip delicately into the stream amidst walls of teepee mountains. Their petals of yellow and blue bleed into green.


Though born in Jamaica, West Indies, Tiani Kennedy grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y. She is currently pursuing an M.F.A. in Creative Writing at Long Island University’s Brooklyn campus. There, she works as a tutor in the Writing Center and will teach a freshman composition course this coming fall. In addition to writing both fiction and poetry, she is also a studio artist who paints and draws mostly surreal images.