THEY SAY DEAD BODIES CAN DO NO HARM

 

once i saw caramel walking
on 10th avenue wearing her
pretty flowered dress when
she tore her stockings on
the curb

now my mother has to explain
she has killed herself for
her religion

 

mouths move but claim not to speak
people are dancing like robots
legs have become drums
movement is challenged by the thickness
passions in a box with figs

 

i burned the connecting webs
this is the process i use to
trick grief as i so often have

what can one do anyway with the
knowledge gained?

 

i could bite my fingernails
to take the edge off but
instead i’ll remind me i am
a scholar of pain

Born in Texas, raised in Mississippi, and currently residing in Georgia, Nancy Brooks-Lane has studied writing at the University of Southern Mississippi and has published poems in Magnolia Park and B&N Alley.

"They Say Dead Bodies Can Do No Harm" copyright © 2002 by Nancy Brooks-Lane.