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Please keep in mind that any similarities to Oscar Wilde’s own writing in The Picture of Dorian Gray present within this piece are purely intentional; I have purposely integrated Wilde’s quotes into this flash poetry series in order to convey a meaningful connection to the text.
I hope you enjoy!
I have always been
inexplicably attracted to
boys like you.
(And I prefer boys over men,
for men have always been
far too cautious for my liking).
I suppose you could say
that you are my type:
Defiant.
Hedonistic.
Reckless.
And maybe that is exactly what I need
cuz I think I could learn
a thing or two
from someone as
treacherous as yourself.
So tell me,
my dear Dorian Gray–
won’t you teach me how to
behave badly
for once?
—Lord Henry’s Legacy
Won’t you teach a girl t
o indulge in every
wonderfully immoral sensation
this life has to offer?
–Cure my soul by means of the senses
And,
for these sensations,
I shall pay you in poetry.
Of course,
I shall not rhyme.
I would not want
you to think me
inferior,
after all.
I wish to feel
the exquisiteness of sin
and the tragedy of its consequences.
–Jolie laide
So,
perhaps then,
you can teach me to be someone
other than myself tonight–
for I have grown dreadfully tired
of the girl that I am.
A girl who is so monotonously good.
He emerges,
scales adorned with
gleaming beads of jacinth
and spiralling ribbons of gold.
His mouth drips with
a dark, tantalizing nectar
and from his nostrils billow
the intoxicating smoke of Opium.
The dense foliage
from which he materializes
is draped in fruit–
scarlet apples of incredible voluptuousness,
pomegranates ripe with juices.
With a flick of his tongue,
he whispers,
“Choose your poison, darling.”
–Eden
I choose my friends
for their good looks;
my acquaintances
for their good characters;
my enemies
for their good intellects;
and, most importantly,
my lovers for their
(ravishing)
sense of immorality.
And it is here that
Brimstone
and
Lilac Blossom
shall unite,
poetically intertwined
with a most paradoxical
type of beauty.
–Destroy the heaven in me
I would gladly fall from grace with you.
My Opium Dream,
show me how to be indifferent
to the troubles of this world.
Take me away to some high place
clouded with a thick blue haze,
a place laced with narcotic forgetfulness.
–Sedated by your corruption
Cut the strings that tether me to
morality–
to goodness,
for it is my goodness alone
that has victimized me.
–Their footprints embedded on my spine
They say there is no such thing as an immoral book, (there is only immoral poetry).
Image Source:
Dorian Gray sipping tea gif (n.d). [image] Available at: https://giphy.com/search/Dorian-gray [Accessed 25 Jul. 2018].
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