Lucid Percussions

Lavinia

Piano elegies and white curtains
teal dresses and weed and booze
mothershrike laid in bed for months
a corpse yet breathing

Love offered their condolences
yet still she dared not move
comatose in mourning with a
Flos and Tasselflower casket

she lays with her eyes open
her sisters offer their solutions
though they know she will not listen
she only rises when her daughter must be carried home

I try to hide but she finds me
never always eyes wide open
she comes to me when people leave
so we can hum a dirge in harmony

overcast days can be warm with her near
tucked in sheets that haven't been washed
salt is the only stain on her pillowcases
together we sleep in until the moon rises
only because she prefers the dark

that casket is melancholic womb
dirges lilting condense to lacrimosa
memories flash through incandescence
and we wonder where the truth remains