Entry #32

Lamentation
by K. Lawson Gilbert


Someone said it was
time to go. I was loathe
to leave the whispers behind.
We traveled huddled together,
a knot of professional mourners,
with pasty masks covering
our suntanned faces.

“Listen” broke our stride,
and we stopped on our path
in the middle of our thoughts.

Galloping out of nowhere
a troop of tumblers arrived
for our entertainment and distraction.
How could we have torn our cheeks
and gnashed our teeth, when we were
much amused by apparitions of acrobats,
who were able to leap and rise above
the curtain of our false grief?

Like ghosts always do, one by one,
they jumped and somersaulted into
the thin air around us, until we could
no longer sense their presence.

Again, someone said it was time to go.
In unison, we adjusted our false faces,
shuffled in step, slumped our shoulders,
and hung our heads. Under the tapestry
covered, lonely moon - we had to get back
to the things of death.


[K. Lawson Gilbert is a poet and a teacher. She is a member of the Dietrich Poets and Writers Group in the Endless Mountains region of Pennsylvania.]