Using form: Susan Jarvis Bryant, ‘Sorceress’

She is polished and pernicious 
Her demeanor is delicious 
She will soften the suspicious 
     With her smile 
 
She’ll abash you then disarm you 
She’ll harass and she’ll alarm you 
Then she’ll nonchalantly charm you  
     That’s her style 
 
She’ll reject and then she’ll choose you 
She’ll respect and then she’ll use you 
She’ll protect and then she’ll bruise you 
     In a flash 
 
She’ll dismiss you then possess you  
She will curse you then she’ll bless you 
She’ll distress and then impress you 
     With panache 
 
She’ll accuse and then assuage you 
She’ll abuse and she’ll upstage you 
She’ll amuse and she’ll enrage you 
      Every day   
 
She’ll assist you then she’ll spurn you 
She’ll enlist you then she’ll burn you  
She will twist and she will turn you 
     Every way 
 
She will praise and then berate you 
She will raise and then deflate you 
She’ll amaze and still frustrate you 
     You can’t win 
 
She’s capricious and malicious 
She is smoothly surreptitious 
She conceals a core that’s vicious  
     With a grin

*****

Susan Jarvis Bryant writes: “This is one of those poems that simply wrote itself. It’s a nonce form that appeared in my head as a song without lyrics.  The lyrics came easily. I love the way words fit together to create music – a melodious flow that lifts images to a greater height. Passion always assists me in the creative process, and this poem is written about someone in particular… someone that irked me greatly… someone I will never mention. I’ll just nod and smile a satisfied smile when reading the poem. Poetry composition can be immensely cathartic.”

‘Sorceress’ was originally published in Snakeskin.

Susan Jarvis Bryant is originally from the U.K. and now lives on the coastal plains of Texas. Susan has poetry published on The Society of Classical Poets, Lighten Up Online, Snakeskin, Light, Sparks of Calliope, and Expansive Poetry Online, The Road Not Taken, and New English Review. She also has poetry published in The Lyric, Trinacria, and Beth Houston’s Extreme Formal Poems and Extreme Sonnets II anthologies. Susan is the winner of the 2020 International SCP Poetry Competition and was nominated for the 2022 and 2024 Pushcart Prize. She has published two books – Elephants Unleashed and Fern Feathered Edges.

Photo: “Day 47-Split Personality” by Bazule is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0.