By John Grey
It is time to cover her face.
So much can do the job.
Blankets, newspaper,
anything short of her own expression.
Nobody knows why it happened.
Nobody knows why people do what they do.
But they're all experts in
wrapping up this business,
in bringing it to
a respectful conclusion.
Cover her face with the day before,
with the day after.
Cover her face with her entire life history
but leave out the dark parts.
Cover her face with her mother's tears.
Cover her face with the fact
that life rumbles on
even when the scavengers have
ransacked the best part of it.
The next headline, the rotten weather,
or the fearful stuff that happens
down your dark alleys…
so much can put a seal on what
has happened here.
Only one implement of her destruction.
But many are the ways to wrap
it out of existence, usher its
doleful lack of message
out into the world…
the uncaring world she’s left behind,
in perpetuity for the rest of us.
About the Author:
John Grey is an Australian poet, US resident, recently published in Shift, River And South and Flights. Latest books, Bittersweet, Subject Matters and Between Two Fires are available through Amazon. Work upcoming inLevitate, Writer’s Block and Trampoline.