lot's wife, or, aesthetics pt. 3

i am full of blinding visions
i am chock-full of first attempts—
revisions—
weighty,
symbolic
tangerines dancing—

i am the pomegranate and the apple
i am the teeth of eve on apples
i am the beauty of the apple

(i am round
ripe
ready to be plucked

i am the serpent and the temptress
i am babylon and israel)

i am pregnant with metaphor
as mary with messiah;
as judas with his master
i sell meaning for thirty shekels

i illuminate through symbols
i am sodom and gomorrah
the salt becomes my tongue
my tongue salts the pillars
lot's wife becomes my rhyme

my words take on divinity
thrice they smote the angels
twice i ransomed syntax
once i sound the bell

(my words split hairs in heaven,
my words are kept in shells)