Roses were never within her

For only the cloying fragrance of lilies  

emanated from every pore

and ethereal breath 

A succulent moss gave comfort

like an earthly blanket

Seducing her cold, dead bones

Pale, decaying flesh turning

fertilizer for sprouting fungi: 

such tempting, flavoursome morsels 

of a fine meaty bouquet

 

The swirling breeze whispers:

 

T a k e  o n e

 

Slyly, it prickles his skin 

guiding a trembling hand 

deep into a cavity to pluck 

and place

upon his fleshy, damp tongue

 

Cavity to cavity

 

He masticates his sins

Wants to spit

Wants to vomit

His head spins

Feels like

He's

       Stumbling

                      Down

                               Stairs

                                        Right into the folds 

                    of the earth. 

Where only dead eyes peep

 

There's a fractured window

He sees her broken image:

small, pink, 

heaving lungs breaking free of fluid

He pushes through

Glass shatters

She's there in every shard, growing:

Baby, child, teen, woman.

Alive, dead. 

Dead… alive!

Each shard now possessed by her reflection

A finger. A tooth. A breast

An eye

It stares

 

Oh! How it stares! 

 

He's crawling

Digging, 

trying to flee

But the soil is so, so soft

A bed so comfortable, she has made

Just for him

He's scrambling, then running.

Behind, 

the shards rattle into form

he sees the sky

So blue, 

so radiant 

in the grasp of the golden sun

It's her sky, 

he knows that now

 

An expulsion of breath

 

The knotted face of an old oak tree 

regards him kindly

Its arm creating a cavity within his chest

A lovely, glistening cavity 

for beautiful, meaty mushrooms to grow.

 

Under a sky of honey hue

The shards of her

cast iridescent beauty upon him

And she begins to cultivate

her newly acquired land 

 

Image from @Neutralious on Twitter