Coco, and: Opium

Abstract

Coco, and: Opium Jehanne Dubrow (bio) Coco Chanel, 1984 My greatest weakness is I do not wantto let you go, fearing perhaps,without a body I am barelya cluster of clover torn from the field.Please, understand it is the natureof frightened things to hold the wristmore tightly. I grip your throatin the peach and jasmine of my terror,orange blossom you almost to suffocation.If that's not enough, I take to youwith the pointed ends of cloves, stainyou vanilla-sweet, cling like resinfrom a tree. And aren't you afraid too—without my constant atmosphere of roses,you are only skin, the nakednessof sand on which nothing grows. [End Page 144] Opium Yves Saint Laurent, 1977 If I tell you I love the contraryof what I am, you'll believe meonly bay leaves floating in a bowlof other spices, cloves perhaps,a speckling of pepper. If I say peachesare the mistresses I keep, you'll thinkI'm a plum that bruises easilybeneath the pressure of a thumb. The problem is to speak about holdinga thing and its oppositeinside one self. I can adorethe carnation twisting on its stemand also the musk, howevermuch a vapor, however rootlessand floating it might be. [End Page 145] Jehanne Dubrow Jehanne Dubrow is the author of nine poetry collections, including most recently Wild Kingdom (lsup, 2021), and two books of creative nonfiction, throughsmoke: an essay in notes (New Rivers Press, 2019) and Taste: A Book of Small Bites (Columbia up, 2022). Her third book of nonfiction, "Exhibitions: Essays On Art and Atrocity," will be published by University of New Mexico Press in 2023. Her writing has appeared in POETRY, New England Review, Colorado Review, and the Southern Review. She is a professor of creative writing at the University of North Texas. Copyright © 2022 University of Nebraska Press