I am a ghost to you.

Lucy

death is a red coquette
on your father’s fossil arm
its abyss forgotten and ungrieved
into cosseted veins of poetry,
but words mean nothing to you;

yellow dreams wept in her darkness,
and caitiff of mirrored dust, and bone consumed
moon-wept death in the waves and
fingertips of black lillies
nulling marrows in epicedium
of the bear’s wintered hibernation
the seasons that sail the sea-skulls
of saints against the tumulus sands;

I’ve written letters, ghost of a doll,
the candles salve in sea-foam, and I bled
the umbilical knot to my child moon.

© 2020 lucysworks.com All Rights Reserved.

Written for the dVerse prompt: “Your challenge is to take FIVE (no more or less) from these 21 ‘charms’ and string them together in a poem with style and word length of your choosing.”

All phrases below are from “The pale Impromptu.”

Dim Accuracy; Candle salve; Consumed moon;
Eyes jealousy; Fouls deviation; Grey life;
Hearts brow; Lucid farrows; Nulling marrows;
Painted mirth; Pale heat; Palmed rose;
Pearls from tissue; Pellucid quest; Royal flesh;
Skulls of saints; Slime pigments; Spiritual songs;
Solitudes wish; Times chant; Yellow dreams;

This piece is also inspired by Where Evil Grows by The Poppy Family.

Reposted 5/14/2021.

Published by Lucy

"Poetess of darkness"–dVerse community; cat hoarder, guitarist, keyboardist, psych major.

53 Comments

  1. Appropriately surreal and moody for both the prompt and the season. Some startlingly imaginative lines not least:
    “the seasons that sail the sea-skulls
    of saints against the tumulus sands;”

    thanks for joining in and making such good use of Greenberg’s charms!

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  2. Ah, Lucy, this is my kind of poem! I love it all – even the ghost of a doll (I have doll phobia). It’s hard to pick out specific phrases and lines, but I was blown away by the sounds and images in the lines:
    ‘moon-wept death in the waves and
    fingertips of black lilies’
    and
    ‘the seasons that sail the sea-skulls
    of saints against the tumulus sands’.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Aww, Kim, thank you. I’m glad to hear that. I do not have doll phobia, however, there is only one specific doll that will never fail to scare me still. They should be used in horror movies.

      Anyway, about that line if it makes you feel better, I always visualize doll with a porcelain glass type figure. Thank you again for the kind and lovely comment. ❤ ❤

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  4. This is deliciously dark and brooding! I so love the imagery here especially; “yellow dreams wept in her darkness, and caitiff of mirrored dust, and bone consumed moon-wept death in the waves.” I wish I’d written this! 😀

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    1. Aww, Sanaa, that means so much to me. I am flattered and honored by your kind words. ❤ ❤ ❤ I also really loved your poem for today’s prompt. You use evocative and sensual imagery that I could never dream up or conjure, it’s absolutely inspiring.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

    1. You and me both, Lisa. It wasn’t even the other day when I was looking at an old poem, just wondering what I originally had in mind. Maybe it makes it fun that way when I forget the original meaning, so I can also be on the receiving end of “Just what in God’s name is Lucy on about now?” 😀 Haha.

      Thank you for your feedback. I’m very happy you liked those lines!

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  7. The vividly striking opening stanza chillingly sent a ghostly shiver down my spin… superb Lucy..
    “death is a red coquette
    on your father’s fossil arm
    its abyss forgotten and ungrieved
    into cosseted veins of poetry,
    but words mean nothing to you;”

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  8. OMG, you have cleverly, audaciously taken Greenberg’s charms, and shards of his darkness, and mingled it, morphed it, married it to you own uniqueness, darkness, and poetic verve. No mean feat–and you make it appear to be effortless–the mark of a good writer.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  9. You are a weaver of words, all of them hanging like pearls on a tenuous thread of suffering. I love these lines: “the seasons that sail the sea-skulls of saints against the tumulus sands” which seem to express so much of the persona’s sense of martyrdom. Wonderfully done, Lucy!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  10. kaykuala
    of the bear’s wintered hibernation
    the seasons that sail the sea-skulls
    of saints against the tumulus sands;

    Love the balance of words of quiet hibernation to the tumultuous ocean sands. It creates movements in the minds that make the poem alive. Great take Lucy!

    Hank

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. I will gladly give you the map for this poem, Jane. 🙂 My writing is more often than not a stream of consciousness so it doesn’t always make sense.

      I describe a theme of abandonment in death. The narrator is speaking to themselves at first, before it switches in the point of view in the second stanza. The poem now describes the feelings of betrayal and abandonment, and as evinced in the last few lines in first person POV, the narrator will never be able to reach out to this person who is physically gone.

      Thank you so much for the feedback. 🙂

      Like

      Reply

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