Poetry for the dead

[Adena]

I didn't want to keep putting all of my ballads and laments into the main poetry thread, so here we are. I think I might attempt to collect my poetry for the dead here.

Ashes

You rose
from the dust.
A phoenix.
Spreading kaleidoscopic wings.
You scattered charcoal
on my face
as you flew.
Gave me a part of your immortality.
Now you are dead.
From ashes to ashes.
But your spirit lives in me.

[Adena]

Murder

I don't want you to leave me
To take the leap away
The spirit world is calling you
I wish that you could stay
Your creamy, rippling flesh is warm
The air rips from your mouth
Inside your heart is stopping cold
And you are flying south
You're dying and I know it
I cannot feel your breath
I lift your face into my arms
As you slip into death
I hear the sirens wailing
Someone steps inside
'My dear,' he says, 'your friend is dead.
I'm sorry, but we tried...'
The killer walks in handcuffs
But your saviours came too late
To save you from the man you feared
To save you from your fate...

Andie

You cry
I see the tears betraying how you feel
You call
I wish so much that paradise was real
You break
I know now that there's no way you can stay
You fall
I stand alone as your last seconds slip away

The Death Penalty

Reading her fate off time-honoured walls
Still too young to hear their call
She agreed with this so long ago
But back then, how was she to know
That the state wouldn't stop with those who fall
That one day she would hear it all
Recall the scratching, sketching pen
And read the words it writes again

Prisoner upon death row
Trapped in life's lament
I am here to break you now
When all your dreams are spent
Prisoner upon death row
You cannot run away
You are caught within my snare and
I will make you stay

The Death of a Child

Somewhere in the world
as the clock ticks eleven
a child is being hit.
As you gossip
of insignificant things
an innocent soul
is screaming.
Trying to be heard.
But maybe the door
is shut too tight.
Maybe they're in a basement
with only a crack of light
to the world outside.
And as you, naive women
complain about small hardships
a blameless soul is crying out.
Willing you to find them.
And then
when they find the dead body
starved and beaten dry
you wipe away a tear
and say 'Oh, that's sad.'
That child did not need sympathy.
They needed someone's hands
to hold them close and tight.
One last gift
of love
before they died.

Truth
to the man who killed his niece - with love from Adena

There's no place to be like loneliness
Inexorable sentence of mixed-up crimes
There's no thing to feel like numbness
So many circling, wheeling times

The elephants have left the room
Cross. Lash. Pain. Bed.
The truth has set the caged birds out
And chained the evil ones instead

A life sentence now is ending
It is the shorter of the two
For those that walked the other side
so many ways - they all passed through
Will serve their days in Hell. With you.

Innocent Blood

Underneath the ocean.
Frozen. Silent.
The frost of evil.
Handprints on ice.
Sacred ground.
Broken. Quiet.
The breach of the river
A kick from beneath.
The memories all buried so deep in the past.
This life was cut too short too fast.

[Adena]

Gravestone

Angel
silent
stands watching
in stone
no breath.
Your spirit
rises
like ice crystals
from the ground
melting in the sun.
Trying to escape.
Somewhere else now.
A safer place.