Apr '14 8
Cemetery

I like the gravity of a cemetery
sentinel heads protect the secrets of skeletons
from cool closet to sun-baked earth
and I imagine and mourn their stories
returned to dust:
the illicit affair
the stillborn child
intimacies with a trusted priest
(him safely dead too)
and I worry about how names and years disappear
as stone markers crumble over time
and yet red gum salvaged
from the bed of the Murray
has yielded perfectly formed
one-thousand-year-old fossilised tales.

Posted by Jennifer Liston

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6 Comments

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  1. Robert says:

    *Hmm, safely dead ...

  2. Mike says:

    *I like this Jen. Right from the opening line - the play on 'gravity' and 'cemetery'.

  3. Ray says:

    *Feels like the mental universe has travelled backward from inner sanctum to cemetery to 1000-year-old...Or is it travelling forward??? Lovely piece.

  4. Russ says:

    *Yep, exactly the same comment as Mike

  5. Jen says:

    *Thank you, Mike and Russ!

  6. Jen says:

    *Hahaha Ray, you're right there in my head with me, in knots! ;-)

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