FOUR FEATHERS PRESS ONLINE EDITION: DEAD DAYS Send up to three poems on the subject of or at least mentioning the words dead and/or day, totaling up to 150 lines in length, in the body of an email message or attached in a Word file to donkingfishercampbell@gmail.com by 11:59 PM PST on November 15th. No PDF's please. Color artwork is also desired. Please send in JPG form. No late submissions accepted. Poets and artists published in Four Feathers Press Online Edition: Dead Days will be published online and invited to read at the Saturday Afternoon Poetry Zoom meeting on Saturday, November 16th between 3 and 5 pm PST.

Monday, November 11, 2024

Jackie Chou

Dead Days 


My days are dead without you

oh my loves, my friends

my muses

 

How harsh is the sunlight

that awakens me each morning 

from dreams of you 

 

I've hit my nose hard

against the window pane 

that separates our worlds 

 

I am flightless without you

like paper cranes on a mobile

hung by the sliding door 

 

I gesture towards the light

only to have the night 

close its curtain on me

 

The cycle goes on

as days turn into nights

and nights turn into days

 

I sink deeper and deeper 

into the eternity 

of a life without you



 

Ghosted 

 

You're dead to me

though I know you're alive.

 

I know you only in memory

and imagination.

 

You could have grown out 

your schoolgirl's bob,

dyed it like a mermaid's mane.

 

Or made your brown eyes blue 

with color contacts.

 

You must be somewhere 

spreading golden wing glitter

you've withheld from me.

 

I am not certain,

for I have not seen your glory

with my own eyes.

 

So you are not real,

not anymore.

 

Just a ghost floating 

through the many curtains 

of my heart.

 

You're dead,

for you have deprived me

the gift of your presence.



 

Questions for Death

 

What are you wearing, oh dear,

that I could discern from afar?

A black cloak and black glasses?

 

Could I take a detour 

around the shadowy corner 

where you stand waiting?

 

Aren't you quite classy?

You wouldn't want to be branded 

a stalker, would you?

 

Would you still pursue me

if I disguised myself?

Could you woo somebody else?

 

Would you please not tell me,

no, my love,

I will never let you cheat me?


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