FIRST EDITION
Copyright © 2020 by Beatriz Hauser
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Title: Beloved revolutionary sweetheart / Beatriz Hausner.
Names: Hausner, Beatriz, author.
Description: First edition.
Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 20200194194 | Canadiana (ebook) 20200194208
ISBN 9781771665933 (softcover) | ISBN 9781771665940 (HTML)
ISBN 9781771665957 (PDF) | ISBN 9781771665964 (Kindle)
Subjects: LCGFT: Poetry.
Classification: LCC PS8565.A79 B45 2020 | DDC C811/.6—dc23
The production of this book was made possible through the generous assistance of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council. Book*hug Press also acknowledges the support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund and the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Book Publishing Tax Credit and the Ontario Book Fund.
Book*hug Press acknowledges that the land on which we operate is the traditional territory of many nations, including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat peoples. We recognize the enduring presence of many diverse First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples and are grateful for the opportunity to meet and work on this land.
I love you more than Seguin did Valence,
And how I’d like to conquer you in love,
My dearest friend, for you’re by far the greatest
—The Countess of Dia, often called Beatritz
Tied Up
High Priestess
Song on Tongue
So soon as the front of you
Tied Up
Because I Am Beatrice
Theodorae Biblioteca
The Dream of Theodora
Justinian’s Dream
Isis Up in the Air
Every Door Has Two Fronts
The Delightful Love Of Bacchus
A Story of Egypt, Twisted
Isis Up in the Air
For Good and Ever
Begins the Bright Season
The Importance of Human Romance
The Importance of Human Romance
The Orgasm Elegies
The Orgasm Elegies
Prayer Star
Notes
Acknowledgements
About the Author
Colophon
Our revered lords ladies dear ones I am come to render elegant
homage to silks sometimes chains due to the reversal of the bias.
The principal altar is up side down. Divine Adoratrice of Amun
you of the easy knit interacting with the holder of the office, use
yourself as inspiration in moiré and the shimmery legs strutting
down the aisle: May the perfect fabrications reach up to you because
nothing detracts from the treatment the modality of those fabrics
draped against hardware. You command our attention to the mirror
of ourselves your subjects. Because you must on your own place
the ethereal layers and it is necessary to conceal your love of these
the mothers of the children hanging off us women who accept
the wearing of garments for our Lord Love of perfect fit. Around
us rise the hanging gardens of Babylon and Alexander who saw
them and mistakenly fled along the grain yes against the grain for
he knew not the power of adjuration entreaty renewed twice yearly
when we sat along the long path and praised the importance of the
collar to Amun God’s Wife you are God’s Wife of Amun they call
you more than all the vestals at the altar you alleviate suffering and
the sisters moan in a blessed tone as the trombone groans with the
seasons of irreverence are we renewed spring summer fall and
winter the collections are with the art of being from which we animate
ourselves. I entreat you: do nothing don’t do anything to your genders
of sex for him not the fulfillment of desire nor the satisfying
of want though getting to coming requires great creative power
and the constant invention of writing where pleasure is a present
couture placed against ready-to-wear for the young ones who
work seamlessly and in heels. The young secretariat records
your dictum: I belong to a world devoted to elegance. The
manner of your prayer makes us the thing that most suits you
from which flows our cosmology and structure and softness and
masculine and feminine sometimes the unflattering silhouettes
of ugly chic luxury albeit not basted but rather shirred so
that normalizing the unexplored when designing on paper
when fabricating when draping when cutting when sewing
when finishing the fabric is the medium. Pre-eminently
wearable with the figure dictating the shape of those garments
you offer your chest of accessories drawers that open
and close of their own will overflowing fruit crushed
in a glass of blue of green jewels inside alcohol. We
travel in a car pulled by two lapdogs whose names are
princely.
A designer also this Theodora your sister of now utilizing
whole with no exterior construction to force the dress into
place—and you must be patient. You must surpass yourself
to reach your goals—you utter as the flame is lit and you close
your eyes in prayer pull the flame to your cheeks with your
hands and kiss the deities invisibly protecting us warrior
women in file we parade before you, we who are
fierce and strong, impenetrable owners of our sex.
When least expected
you arrive with
song on your tongue
revenant king
nestled with our sexes
present yourself
that I might see you
shackled to strange
furniture
love hidden
by the textures of want
I travel the length
of your body with my lips
I touch
your geographic markers
west to east
movement
stasis
always the heart
let us not bury
the distressed moan
not place the slab
over us
nor live
with exculpation
in dream
a star rises to your lips
to your hair made
of filaments of gold
and of fabulous
smoke
with Moro anchoring
this voice you enter
the room and tap
lightly on nerves
that grow inward from my sex
now caught in the jaws
of the lion
let us meet daily and at
the hour proscribed
by sun clocks
exact premonitions
of surrender
let us
love to excess before
someone invisibly turns
the hue of my skin to indigo
before they place a bowl of blood
in one hand lotus flower
in the other
a snake