The Cutting of the Rose (Text & Audio)

Though you talk to me with sweetness
on your breath and in your heart, 
My body will not rise to feel 
your meaning in whole, or in part.

I am a woman without a doubt
my servitude is the measure, 
Your expectant stance and countenance
is but my single pleasure.

You will never have to worry, my love
If I shall ever stray, 
For the offending thorn of my desire
has been sharply cut away.

Tuned and pruned to suit my groom
I am the comely bride, 
Submitting to my husband's will
without desire but with pride.

I am free from worldly sins
for the path I chose, 
May Allah bless the garden keepers
for the cutting of the rose.

by Jessica Holter for Verbal Penetration 

Listen to Jessica Holter perform The Cutting of the Rose  
http://www.reverbnation.com/open_graph/song/11273457

The Eunuch & Missy Frier - A Story-Poem by Jessica Holter

The Eunuch, it seems
possessed magical charms
Though held in captivity,
bound by laws of slavery,
he roamed through cotton fields
as free as a slave's dream
of being free

His walk, more like a dance
held slave girls in trance
with his doe-like stride,
his legs stretched toes to hips
a great distance
His arms,
reaching nearly to their knees
His head held high in confidence
never given cause for penance
his nose always finding
and seizing a heavenly breeze
As graceful as the deer
finding rhythm in the air
as if the Frier plantation
had some freshness there

His hair was long
as soft as fur
His voice
as gentle as his manner
Never easy to stir
he could make the lion purr
with his manly strength
and is mothering nature

Born to Master Frier's father
Many years many years before the war
He was but a babe
when his mammy made
a solemn oath to God
that he would be her only child
born into subjugation
While weeding in the trash gang
a midwife from an island afar
told of berry and root
that could clean a pregnant womb

Tall and lean she stood
and when she sat she was
as the praying mantis
casting spells with
but the rub of her fingertips
A Caribbean witch,
is what they called her
Her name was Satajay
She took the new mother
into her council
and upon hearing her wishes
and considering her strife
she took mother and boy
to the end of her knife
taking kin and manhood away

The boy grew into something
less than a woman
but something much more than a man
Sensitivities and obedience
with strength in tongue and hand

Now war was coming, sure to ruin
the delicate balance of the South

And so it came to pass,
Master Frier was called to arms
but feared to leave his house
Wife and daughters
with chastity unguarded
to the whim of a manly bucks charms
and thusly he summoned
The Eunuch to his quarters

Take charge in my absence
ordered the Master
Guard with your life
my home, my children and my wife
and upon my return freedom shall be yours
So with his house in order
and his slaves in tact as cattle
Master Frier made a course
with his gun and his horse
to meet his fate in battle

Only days had passed
when at first Missy Frier asked
The Eunuch for his service
Upon finding no staff,
she lay on her back and gave herself as
she would be subject to a woman
without politic or grace
spilling upon his face
she came... so as never to return,
caring nothing of time or of fortune

So in the dark of night
and in the light of day
The Frier Plantation
and the hands that created it
slave, cattle, cotton and crop,
all slipped slowly away

The moral of this story is for
the man who measures worth
from where his length his hung,
For the definition of a lover
is not founded in the trouser
but in the sweetness of the tongue

At the dawn of the Civil War
three million black hands or more
tilled the Southern soil,
but The Eunuchs were far too gentle
even for cotton
Tis the tale of
The Eunuch and Missy Frier
Never to be forgotten

by @JessicaHolter


by Jessica Holter 

I am excited to be releasing "Privacy II" for digital download and on DVD next year. Enjoy this extended trailer featuring The Punany Poets and Max Julien of The Mack. - Jessica