Something I Have Forgotten
Original Poem by Jesse Cornell
Weeping,
She hangs her head
Into the staring street.
Her blackened charred body barely holds on.
Strength withdrawn from her frame.
Autumn blazed up
Tissue-thin skin-
Newly patterned only months ago.
Amber, gold and red
Held mischievous hands,
Twisting. Pulling. Playing
Against each other.
Dancing,
Crackling,
Bruises climb higher
Up her painted limbs.
Splinter ing,
Frag ment ing-
Memories
Into caving floors.
Creaking cries to cruel winds
Threatening to overtake her.
Hissing, searing,
Clearing.
Lead framed glass
Pops outward and inward
Melted across her eaved eyebrows.
She stands, she’s cooled
Black-brown and grayer
Every hour.
Petite perches lay as skeletal reminders
Of how strong she had once been.
Beams held up by sooty sorrow
Invite her last visitors
That fly away
From, booming crashes and splitting sounds of unrest.
Spiritless ashes scattered,
Then settled.
The little girl knelt by her side.
Sobbing uncontrollably,
Exhaling her remains
Across the neighborhood.
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