Simona Terron - My Secret Graveyard

I walked among the sodden grass, the earth yielding lightly beneath the pressure of my toes
The light chased the gloom, which chased the light, crisscrossing among the tombstones
I stopped to read the legend on one, it proclaimed ‘Here lies one who ate up my space, swallowed my self and counted the days
Until I’d take the shape of the woman he wanted me to be’
I shuddered at the memory, glad to have broken free.

Another grave was partly hidden, obscured by pretty tendrils of bougainvillea blossoms
The vivid colours contrasting starkly with the bare, milky, veined marble they clung to desperately
Brushed aside, they revealed a simple line, ‘Better to have loved and lost’
The blossoms swam among the flood that welled my eyes, I cursed the verdant blooms
And wondered who did tend them to such lush abundance.

The third slab looked forlorn, forgotten, although it appeared far more recent
No pithy homily it bore, just an image of a hastily scrawled black hole,
Small and mean and deadly…
Then from afar came the sounds of waking,
Restless legs-rustling sheets-shifting me from the putative present
I began to walk back through the foggy gates, knowing my secret graveyard would wait
Until the next occasion, when I’d either wander in to reminisce
Or bury another love that wasn’t in my fate

Simona Terron

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