literature

Requiem for Lizzie

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Literature Text

Lizzie, my girl
put down that ax.
There is a hole
in the hem
of your mother's skirt
that needs mending
and your father
has enough to bear.

Go now, child -
sweep out the hearth
and the arms of family
who tie you
to this place
like bees,
wasted and spent
in June.

Wait then
for the letters
that never come
and the gossip of neighbors
to settle
in your eyes
like the dust
from days
where nothing happens
except stale and old.

See how
the sun is nearly setting
and dinner
has gone limp
in pots
on a cold stove
that cannot stand them
in this place
any longer.

And you know
your world
will turn tomorrow
and find them
all gone,
and the sounds they made
dreaming at the table
will beat
like the slow thud

of blood in your ears....
So, we are sitting at Thanksgiving dinner...for once not arguing politics or religion. And the topic segues from Tolstoy to Lizzie Borden. *Chuckles* My synapses are definitely genetic....
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ckhigh1994's avatar
Where do you stand on the Borden murder mystery, do you think she did it?