Jeanne

Your picture
You in effigy
Black and White
Serene and Ghostly-because I could swear it moves quietly and smiles
Your image
You as a younger women
Crowded among the ornaments
Proportioned beside the golden pillar of a candlestick where you have already ascended in this room
Perched on a clean high shelf with lamp light and silken flowers
From here your picture can see the whole room
The floor and the ceiling
The darkened corners
The bedroom door swung wide
The white walls and figurines
You smile at me and at yourself,
the body that keeps you grounded in its wet snorkeled breathing
The metal on your bed catching light and glowing, like an Elvin blade in warning
All of the things that you have brought home from places you've been are kind and smile upon you
You chose kind things, and you placed them there on the shelves and on the walls with your hands
You ordained them, they will perform a work of objectified remembrance when you leave,
But they will fall short in holding your memory as they fell short of distilling the richness of the places from which they came
They will fail you
But now, they are vigilant and blessed disciples that open there eyes wide as your family around you, sleeps, in a darkening garden, while you atone for having lived
-Apesblood