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ELECTRIC MOON MAGAZINE

​sorrow rewound

by andria hill
mouth agape, a gouged landscape
headstones   like   crooked    teeth 
​
her body slain, lain in the pine reeds
a white carnation wreath 
offered unto a quieted earth

sky opaque, blanches the scene 
ravens on    telephone   wire
a flock of black umbrellas poised above bowed heads
while hummed “Amazing Grace” 
tear-full sobs   scatter    like     loose debris 

mama sits in the front row
her fist bruised a purple plume
she gazes at the image bathed in sepia tone
the solemn face   regal    with   afro-crown
bosom swathed in dashiki gown
her Sister, the Sun   in   Sagittarius 

grandmother keeps her grief neatly stowed in her bones 
her first born, brutal   from the womb
 

I had climbed atop her hospital bed 
her breasts once like majestic mountain peaks 
were now   flat   as   horizon 
a single tear crushed beneath auntie’s eyelid 
trailed into the pillowcase  

a daze long-travelled, mama drains of prayer 
we sleep in snatches braced for the knell
paper   dolls   on the hardwood floor 

the doorbell rings
         screen door slams
                    grandmother stands in the foyer
 “She gone,” the words clumped like clay 
I take her hand, a rough terrain 
we tread the depths of silence 
mama pounds the bedpost
hammer to a nail 

 a sliver of opaque sky   slips   through the tinted window
         inside the mobile chamber
our Spirits in mournful song

 we journey toward God’s acre
a procession of cars like a grand parade

Picture
Andria Hill is a poet, singer, songwriter, living in sunny California.  Her work 
can be found in Spectrum 19: Soul Clean and the Altadena Poetry Review 2020.


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