floating and leaving no trace
the woods still sigh, the owls still weep
in the darkness, dark shadows creep
and thoughts of you still fill my head
the fallen trees run black with mold
the silent leaves no longer gold
a sweet, low song fills me with dread
i left you here cold in the ground
with shuttered eyes, you made no sound
yet there you stand, though you are dead
——
Jane Dougherty Writes
Poetry challenge #23: Nove otto
Happy Early Halloween!
the sky is blue
but it’s not the same blue
and the clouds are high
but not as high
or as white
and the air is cold
but not as thin or dry
and sits heavy in the lungs
already
the day is filled
with going and doing
and not enough being
one walk
one attempt to sustain
has us finding a lizard
carelessly killed
and grieved only by
the mourning of doves
the buzzing of insects
and the two of us
placing him in the shade
so that he won’t be hit again
i wonder how different here
can be from there
where signs warn
not to step on cryptobiotic soil
and here the lizard
with his beautiful blue stomach
couldn’t move fast enough
in a world moving much too fast
among the smooth grass
above the markers
three graces smile
holding hands
each looking in a different
direction
only one has faced death before
and it is her constant companion
a shadow that no amount of light
can banish nor darkness obscure
the other girls will never know
the same way
the touch of his cold still hand
in their own small, warm, ever-moving hands
but the soldiers
who wait beneath their little feet
who wait beneath the warm loam
who wait silently at attention forever
have shared this with her
before their transmutations
and now as she smiles
on this sunny day
The coffin was too large for her
She lay there like a doll
Make-up that she could not apply
Not for the last few years
Rosy on her cheeks
Hair smooth and washed and clean
Her face but not her face
Mom had to be led away slowly
Sobbing how she looked so small
And the chapel seemed like a joke
Like a facade you would see
At Disneyland
Almost real but not just
The only thing that saved the day
Was the aunt who insisted on
Taking a flower from the grave
And almost fell into the gaping hole
Waiting to receive my grandmother
The opposite was true for his funeral
He was big even in the coffin
And they said
It would be closed
But it wasn’t at first
Even through the chapel doors
You could see him
And at any second he would sit up
And turn with his eyes glued shut
And his mouth plugged tight
And accuse
Announce his disappointment
From beyond the grave
Weeks later in a dream
He stood before me
Without a shirt
Standing for some reason
In his old apartment in Santa Ana
His stomach fish belly white
And covered in dark hair
A Y incision hastily sewn up
Over his chest
It was all a mistake he said
But I woke not knowing what he meant
And not believing him anyway
i see her through a sliding glass door
not sure how or why
only i know
in the logic of dreams
and madness
and fiction
that she and i shared a moment
a passion
and that shortly after
she died
but there she is
on the other side of the glass
smiling
happy
alive even though i remember
seeing her buried
i open the door
aren’t you happy? she asks
i came back
Words and Feathers 