Agoloso Presents - Atondido Stories Agoloso Presents - Mama Mada | Page 205

Mama Mada
stray hairs back
into their place.
2. Memento Mori
All sod and taproot now, all bulb
and tuber and stemshoot Mulch throb,
lush with worms and slugs—we are never worth
more than this
Thrum of the earth, clatter-bulge of cicada shells
along a coffin’s hinges Teak and scented cedar
flushed with compost An elegy
of rot, this counterfeit reliquary
If you each day clutch
our pillows, press them to your face, pray
to take in some atom of me all
into the hollows of your chest, yes
I promise my ghost will find you
should you want someone else to love
Given by Jo Be ll
A dark man gave me this, and it was everything:
a cabin twelve by six, and Severn rising limitless.
No romance, no quarter; little rest.
In his coffin bunk, our skins, the channels of my wrist
were specks of engine oil and wine, small piracies of self.
We made a travellers’ pact to go wherever water let us pass,
together until each stood in the other’s way.
His second gift was a clean parting. Love passes,
water stays. Inconstant: always borrowed, never spent.
A better woman would be sorry now.
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