Notice of Death: St. Martinville, Louisiana

[catelin]

The Bathing Pond
Harold Knight

Notice of Death: St. Martinville, Louisiana

Miss Evalene Cormier died in her seventy-sixth year, on a warm evening in June
watching fireflies on the front porch of her daddy's old house.

She never married so there are no children here to mourn her passing,
to recall apron strings, buttermilk pies, or the way she smiled with her eyes.

No one to testify to her kind spirit in the Mount Calvary Baptist Church
as the parishioners nod their heads and fan themselves in unison saying "Amen."

No one to know that as a young woman she'd disrobe without shame
to bathe in Ugly Pierre's pond, even when she knew he was always there watching.

No one to remember that she lay with him under the Flower Moon,
that she whispered how beautiful he was while he wept silent tears onto her lips.

There is no husband to lay a trembling hand to rest on the lace of her funeral gown,
loathe to return alone to the warm bed they shared for so many honey sweet years.

No one to understand why she never seemed right again after they found Ugly Pierre
dead in the woods, or why she hated her daddy so much.

There's nothing to say about Miss Evalene Cormier except that she loved watching fireflies.

Comments

[catelin.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I'm still not sure what it will end up being...a poem or a prose piece, but I'm glad you liked it. : )

[dalibor.livejournal.com]

I like poetry/stories that leave room for the imagination. Like, starting an avalanche of associations with just a word or a phrase & then leaving it completely open.... then you remember something from the beginning of the piece, combine these associations, and no 'stringent' Hollywoodesque conclusion to ruin this free-floating process. Just like a French movie, somehow.