“Bury Your Love Head Down” by R.K. Duncan
Bury your love head-down, and he will swim
Down through the dark, wet earth
Into the golden kingdom where dead heroes lie
Atop golden treasures that were too bright
For a world without them
Bury your love head-down, and he will find
The cauldron cup and drink, and climb back to you,
Changed and grayed and strange
Hang your love in branches, and crows will come
To peck and taste and feast
To dig in through her eyes and find her mind
They’ll eat up her gray worms and hang their nests
With her bright eyes
Hang your love in branches, and she will fly
On scores of soft black wings, returning
Changed and split and strange
Lay your love on stone, and they will pale
To alabaster sheen
With marble flowing over skin
To make fantastic curtains of their funeral clothes
And armor them in white
Lay your love on stone, and they will stay
Just as you remember them alive,
Stiff and cold and same.
| R. K. Duncan is an author of fantasy, horror, and occasional sci-fi. He writes from a a few rooms of a venerable West Philadelphia row home, where he dreams of travel and the demise of capitalism. In the shocking absence of any cats, he lavishes spare attention on cast-iron cookware and his long-suffering and supportive partner. Before settling on writing, he studied linguistics and philosophy at Haverford college. His occasional musings and links to other work can be found at rkduncan-author.com. |