Macabre Concerto – Pretty Little Death #4

Al' / 9 February 2015

(English only – Je n’aime pas traduire les poèmes, surtout quand ils ne sont pas de moi.)

Mother, if you really want to know,
Yes. I wanted to die for her.
I wanted to lay down
in the middle of
Springfield Avenue
and die for her.
She is the death I don’t like
talking about.
The one that I survived.
The one that I came crawling
out of, fingernails bent back.
The one that bagged my groceries
and didn’t look at me
the right way.

I play shadow puppets with her memory;
drink champagne until
I’m tender.

Mother, her—her
absence was the most
beautiful thing I’ve ever
suffered for,
ache like a
purple gown that trailed
behind me when I walked.

I was glowing, mother.
I was the most elegant
loneliness, the most exquisite
creature among all of the
unloved.

Caitlyn Siehl, Quiet Death