by Jay Newman:
Death came and stole the last
breath of freedom
from the shadows underneath
the covers and stiffened
the raven’s hair
with comfort of thousands
of full moons at midnight,
glaring pale on hardened cheeks
and broken, lack-luster lips.
No blood stained the pillows,
as black as the velvet-
lined casket buried beneath
the family plot
and the last caress
of blind gazes behind a web-
weaved veil and matching shroud,
decayed, below pacing footsteps.
Tip-toe through the tombstones
in the graveyard at twilight
and plant a wreath before invisible
names to kill the same emptiness
again and again—and again.
The dark wine mourned the celebration,
sloshing crystalline over the edge
of the flute onto the corsaged
lapel and smeared the bleach-
cloud wedding gown with a funeral
dirge,
the same dirge the Victrola echoes
around the high-backed chair
until the brooding man’s ears bleed
out the wails of the withered
chrysanthemums
in the frail clutches of the beloved
Ligeia.
Jay Newman, winner of Youngstown State University’s 2010 Robert R. Hare award for poetry, is a graduate of YSU with a bachelor’s in English. His poetry has been printed in YSU’s literary magazine The Penguin Review and Worlds Within Worlds Beyond, a Florida-based literary magazine. Jay is currently working toward an MFA in poetry from the Northeast Ohio Master of Fine Arts creative writing program and spends his free time writing dark poetry and prose and composing music.
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