Lena (2011)
Posted: Tue May 10, 2011 7:56 am
Lena
Gold
Rings in a tin
Full of lead
Pellets -
Extracted teeth
In a mass-grave full
Of fillings.
A Great Grandfather's ring -
Definitely
Gold.
There
Beside the black Mark II pin
A little plastic spyglass
With a photo
Of him
Who you have begun to resemble
So strikingly.
Hands heavy with sovereignty
It's no wonder she was
So tiny.
Crushed under
A glass, a bar stool
Thousands of cigarettes and infidelities
To that lonely discordant bed
Unaware, incoherent
A mass of jutting bones.
Where did her gold go?
Her treasure trove of old
Photos.
Stale eggs at Easter.
And those nails -
Like a witches we thought
Deftly wrapping themselves
Round a rolling machine,
Are probably still growing
Rat-a-tat-tatting
In a hole somewhere
At the bottom of an Urn.
They'd never burn.
Gold
Rings in a tin
Full of lead
Pellets -
Extracted teeth
In a mass-grave full
Of fillings.
A Great Grandfather's ring -
Definitely
Gold.
There
Beside the black Mark II pin
A little plastic spyglass
With a photo
Of him
Who you have begun to resemble
So strikingly.
Hands heavy with sovereignty
It's no wonder she was
So tiny.
Crushed under
A glass, a bar stool
Thousands of cigarettes and infidelities
To that lonely discordant bed
Unaware, incoherent
A mass of jutting bones.
Where did her gold go?
Her treasure trove of old
Photos.
Stale eggs at Easter.
And those nails -
Like a witches we thought
Deftly wrapping themselves
Round a rolling machine,
Are probably still growing
Rat-a-tat-tatting
In a hole somewhere
At the bottom of an Urn.
They'd never burn.