Calcified Failings

I gouge the eyes out of the dead Greeks’ skulls
and withhold the obols from their mouths…
all the while I wonder,
if I snorted your ashes, would they form
bones behind my eyes
for your memory to hang on?

I wasn’t there to pry open your mouth,
to force life back into your stubborn lungs,
where the invited tar babies
danced around in them
suffocating you –
I couldn’t stand their lingering taste…

The mourner’s faces swirl around me
treating me as if I’m your widow,
but I’m not;
we share only a common thread
like Theseus and Ariadne
with roles reversed.

I failed you,
dropping the ball of twine
while making a run for it,
I choked on all the words;
you didn’t make it out of the maze alive
still perplexed by the twists and turns,
the Minotaur bit deep into your heart
and then left you to die alone

 

“The Smile’s Insatiable Silk” © Bill Wolak”

 

Misty Roper is a novice poet who has been writing for several years as a method for coping with her hectic life. She has worked as a 911 operator & dispatcher for law enforcement for almost 20 years and is currently working on her B.S. degree in Chemistry.