Burning Woman
Posted: April 1st, 2015, 1:51 pm
His mother burned
when he was eight
He watched her skin dance
a red-and-orange dance—
ashes-to-ashes now means
everything to him
The thing is, twenty years later,
of distance, age, or time
none for long has meant much—
most nights his pillow smells
of dust-to-dust when he dreams
of her shriveling mouth,
and the voice that once sang
him to sleep as a child
when he was eight
He watched her skin dance
a red-and-orange dance—
ashes-to-ashes now means
everything to him
The thing is, twenty years later,
of distance, age, or time
none for long has meant much—
most nights his pillow smells
of dust-to-dust when he dreams
of her shriveling mouth,
and the voice that once sang
him to sleep as a child