Saturday, October 22, 2011

Grave Affair: A Magpie Tale



Still Sitting Shivah
by Lemuel Crouse

Honored buried dead
Broken-down bodies
Resting deep in red clay
I find cold comfort here

Ritual and rite observed
Voice given to The Word
Mourners brought low by
Song and grief now gone

A solemn vigil I still keep
Ever weeping seven days 
Seven months seven
Years seven times seven

Heaven knows how long
In abiding sadness I
Have watched and prayed
For the day of resurrection

No marble monument bears
My story no marker or name
I alone will ever know whose
 Death forlorn is mourned here

I know, Lemuel...
*lights candle*

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12 comments:

Mimi Foxmorton said...

Beautiful.
And title even more so......

Tess Kincaid said...

Yes, cold comfort...beautiful...

The Blog of Bee said...

This is awesome.

christopher said...

You can just about guarantee anyone over forty can relate to such things. The loss is universal. The older you get the more there is.

JJ Roa Rodriguez said...

aha! very calm one... love it!..

JJRod'z

Tumblewords: said...

Beautifully crafted from title to finish!

Isabel Doyle said...

atmospheric

Brian Miller said...

i like the gentle touches doc...the seven times seven and resurrection...

Margaret said...

A solemn vigil I still keep...

A lifetime of mourning, it seems. This is written so softly. I really like it.

Carolina Linthead said...

Thank you, all...it means a lot. I can't tell you the whole of it, but, yes, Margaret, decades of mourning. Read another way, one might even think this poem is from the point of view of the monument, keeping vigil over the grave, but I think you saw it for what it is: lament for a loss by which the poet is still haunted, so to speak.

hyperCRYPTICal said...

A beautiful poem indeed.

Anna :o]

Helena said...

There are sweet tones to this one. It was a pleasure to read!