Aug 21
DEATH IS A MIRROR LEAKING LIGHTNING
Death is
a mirror
leaking lightning
Time alters
to fit
around the fact
the sunlight
empties itself
of warmth
merely picks out
the world
as if the effort hurt
Time unpicks
stitch by stitch
Life’s rich embroidery
a constellation
comes
to comfort m
it hovers
awkwardly
above my pain
unable
to comprehend
its tiny immensity
I have become
the rabbit
staring at me from a trap
watching the world
erase itself
second by second
two crows
perch upon
your tombstone
gossiping
about how
the world comes and goes
I throw angry words
at them and they caw
off intoan empty sky
a marble
angel & I
standing sentinel
the marble angel
trying not to
cry
*
That last long long telephone conversation...three hours then my phone ran out and he called me back for another three hours. One of the topics was...what lightning is, and what it can do and the superstitions that grow up about it.
People covered all the mirrors in their house when a person died or because they can “catch and reflect” lightning. "Mirrors leak lightning." it was believed. It was thought that lightning can behave like light and be reflected. Lightning of course is not light, but a raw, electrical charge.
The phrase "leak lightning" really struck me and I hadn't heard it before.
As a electrician he was able to tell me in detail what lightning was and does! All the technical stuff I can no longer remember but everything said in that last telephone conversation has now taken on life of its own..
Death is
a mirror
leaking lightning
Time alters
to fit
around the fact
the sunlight
empties itself
of warmth
merely picks out
the world
as if the effort hurt
Time unpicks
stitch by stitch
Life’s rich embroidery
a constellation
comes
to comfort m
it hovers
awkwardly
above my pain
unable
to comprehend
its tiny immensity
I have become
the rabbit
staring at me from a trap
watching the world
erase itself
second by second
two crows
perch upon
your tombstone
gossiping
about how
the world comes and goes
I throw angry words
at them and they caw
off intoan empty sky
a marble
angel & I
standing sentinel
the marble angel
trying not to
cry
*
That last long long telephone conversation...three hours then my phone ran out and he called me back for another three hours. One of the topics was...what lightning is, and what it can do and the superstitions that grow up about it.
People covered all the mirrors in their house when a person died or because they can “catch and reflect” lightning. "Mirrors leak lightning." it was believed. It was thought that lightning can behave like light and be reflected. Lightning of course is not light, but a raw, electrical charge.
The phrase "leak lightning" really struck me and I hadn't heard it before.
As a electrician he was able to tell me in detail what lightning was and does! All the technical stuff I can no longer remember but everything said in that last telephone conversation has now taken on life of its own..
