Song for Julie

peach pitted skin sallow damp hair
you lie so still in death that i can almost see you
breathing

can you feel the bruises that your silence left
undone?
a handmade envelope with a 15-cent stamp
a slash-winged carnival-crane bird
2 photographs and a syringe
tokens of your absence now

ken ye the love of the one who wailed your wake?

your tombstone, my pillow
for a time--one night
whisper to me the answers of your life
from your grave


((c) TLPatten, 1987, all rights reserved.)