Asking Dita Von Teese to Drumheller
Oh, Dita,
I want to wrangle you
all the way to the Royal Tyrell
and have you slink peep-toed
between phalanges.
Your hair would be so very, very
under these exhibition lights!
Oh, T-Rex, if you see her, won’t you
hook your incisor into the eyelet of her corset
and tug skeleton tight?
Dita, we’ll eat peaches on hoodoos, pink
under the Alberta sky and roll the pits,
and pebbles on our tongues until the fossils sing.
We’ll make pretty specimens, you and I.
Oh, darling, I don’t mean to be so forward
but with the swaying prairie outside my little window,
you know, I have my eye to the east
and your marabou is on my mind.
I am asking, Dita, if I could take you home,
to my home,
to the real badlands
with all the dripping hills and polished bones.
~ Micheline Maylor
Micheline Maylor reads some, teaches some, occasionally picks up a pen, and tries to stay away from Marilyn Manson whenever possible.
“This poem was inspired by the lovely and unique Dita Von Teese cross pollinated with the uniqueness of the Alberta landscape. She understands that sexy should be fun and what could be more fun than a dinosaur museum and a marabou boa? And where else but in Alberta would that sort of thing even be possible? I hope this poem inspires her to do a show there!”
Editor’s note: This poem is from Home and Away – a sequel to the bestselling Writing the Land (2007). Look for one poet to be featured each day as Alberta poets ponder the question “what is home?†and explore our complex relationship with working on, living with, exploiting and protecting our land and our home. For more information about the project, click here.
Leave a Reply