Queen Among the Dead

[Dark Muse]

Queen Among the Dead

I lie stretched
upon the grave
beneath the falling rain
under a gray sky day,
with cold stone hard
against my supple
moonlit flesh.

I am my own tragedy queen
dreaming death
beneath a dead star night,
watched by millions
of flickering eyes,
there is laughter in the dark
and too soon I realize
it is mine.

Among the reeds
and rushes
where the wind blows low
and high, there is only
myself, ivy-chained
wearing my thorny crown.

How can I help but smile
when the dead come to dance
upon my grave
while yet I still live
upon the cool damp earth.

It is a welcome serenity
to hold my breath
and feel as if I am drowning
beneath the water
which falls from the sky,
and I float upward
leaving my body behind.

There is only sorrow here
lingering in the space
between the living and the dead
but we embrace it
as an elevated joy
that only we know.

I will sit enthroned
among these spirits
naked and cold
as they chant in their ritual
bath, and from the waters
I will emerge to dawn
their burial cloth.

[Thomkins]

Nice. I like the way how you turn your feelings into images. The whole scene is just so plainly visualizeable. However after several reads I'm still unsure, who we are in "but we embrace it ". Keep up the good work!

[Dark Muse]

Thank you! My original thought was that the "we' was in reference to the spirits or the dead.

[hillwalker]

I agree this is a very visual poem - loved 'gray sky day' and 'cold stone hard' which have a certain ring about them.

But 'lay' sticks out in line 1 - since the rest of the poem seems to be written in the present tense. I'm assuming you meant 'lie' (or 'I lay my body' which is also grammatically correct).

H

[Dark Muse]

I agree this is a very visual poem - loved 'gray sky day' and 'cold stone hard' which have a certain ring about them.

But 'lay' sticks out in line 1 - since the rest of the poem seems to be written in the present tense. I'm assuming you meant 'lie' (or 'I lay my body' which is also grammatically correct).

H

Ahh yes, it is a bad habbit of mine, becasue I just think that lay sounds so much better poetically than lie, so i use it without thinking.

[Delta40]

Your poems I love your imagery Muse and the torment of one's soul