The Fairy And The Woodcutter Poem by Chris Zachariou

The Fairy and the Woodcutter

Nae sa-lang1

I want to seduce you
with gifts of Vincent's clouds
and handfuls of sweet red cherries

Together
we'll float to the edge of sanity
painting daisies inside Vincent's head
in a whirlwind of divine madness


But I know I'm deluded

to you
I'm just a poor woodcutter
climbing on a beanstalk


No
No

I don't want to hear that story anymore
bring me Vincent's palette and his brushes

— Oh Vincent, Vincent my brother
how I'm missing you these days —

it's too late for me to listen
to the songs of nearly dead cicadas


Nae sa-lang1

I want you with cherry juices
running down your little breasts

I want you in the frenzied greed
of poet's jasmine and in the gasping
breaths of your unsated night

I want you beyond your limits
and your cry, beyond your scream
and your whispers 

because

I'm the sun-god
the priest of ritual madness
and you the Siberian Tiger prowling
in the virgin snow lands


1 My love in Korean

This poem is based on a Korean fairy story.