Detour
written by: Darah Schillinger
I took a graveyard detour today-
there was fog and I was lonely, so I sought company amongst the dead-
and of course I thought of you.
I found myself glad they couldn’t speak
because if they had I know they would’ve told me
you don’t treat headstones like mirrors the way I do,
you don’t see yourself in the worn rocks and rotting flowers, and when they spoke
they would’ve made me realize you’re more alive without me than you ever were in my bed,
forcing yourself to love me.
As I walked the mausoleums whispered the way you did in my ear,
s o f t and needy,
the faces of the leaves twisted into yours,
the very bodies I walked beside shuddered with my selfish grief.
I cried
as if it were me in those graves,
and they watched from the ground,
silent,
and jealous of my broken heart.
- In December We Make Pies - December 22, 2021
- Detour - December 4, 2020
