Elegy

We talked before: she knew
how to construct rainbows -
bits of bible and super-glue:
she had God by the big toe.

Her plaster mask so clean, pure -
the sun has not triumphed here:
one side in shade, the other obscure:
the moon limp as a hound's ear.

Dismiss these scattered dreams -
who can decipher the voices of trees?
such namby noises as they seem:
embrace the stinging sea.

She culled bells in her mouth,
hard vapored sounds of youth -
mockingbirds portending truth:
crystal wings whispered south.

We talked after: as cool as stone -
"It's hard. I can't come back again."
She bent, cupped the baby's chin,
smiled, and was slowly gone.

-Bill Boydstun

Elegy is reprinted here with the permission of its author. The poem originally appeared in The Sandstorm, the literary journal of the University of Texas of the Permian Basin.