Wednesday, October 7, 2009

where the angels would walk (take 2)

Here lies the grave of the little girl Grace
her little blond curls were the fruit of her race
the contour of grave meeting flowers and grass
is the line where the little feet walk slowly past
Their baby-smooth heels making less than a sound
as they trace with their toes all along the sharp ground
and water the grass with their salty pure tears
of careful contented and regretful fears
Could it be she thought of dying today?
than everything else would just go away
the people who don't see her silently cry
would maybe, at last finally come by
And point at the girl who once knew the world
who saw it for everything, great and absurd,
saw what a place is the one where we mock,
the place where the silent
finally talk
She saw it for all of its light-slanted trees
the spaces between them, the sky and the breeze
would push, just aside, for a moment or two
the leaves and their branches, where the birds flew
but there is not robin,
no blue jay,
no light.
There is just solemness, sadness, and flight
I still cannot find where the light meets the dark
the line on the map where the angels would walk
The place where the grass meets the grave meets the sky
the place where she whispers,
the place where she dies.

3 comments:

Penguin said...

does this go with your grace and jack story? i feel like the grace here could easily be the grace there too, but maybe i'm misreading it. either way, i like it.

Golden Guitar said...

nope it doesn't. I simply thought the name goes well with grave (has a nice ring to it, no?) Plus, just love the name Grace. Also, Grace in reference to the idea of angels. As for whether or not she killed herself: yes, it seemed that she wanted to, but did she? we don't really know her cause of death. So, that's a maybe. Plus, she's blond and younger: not the same person obviously. Actually, though, originally I had this told from the perspective of two different people: grace and myself. I changed parts from first person to third person because I was reading it at a laural moon club meeting (the literary magazine on campus.) I didn't want to scare anyone so I made it seem more like a eulogy than a death wish. I will post the original as well:)

Penguin said...

ah, i see. ok. it wasn't a death wish before though, right?