resistant bit by bit
immolated
by
melancholy
a slow crawling
dull
red coal that scavenges
the moisture of tears
scorches
the dry tortured
tender beneath
deliberately
no sputtering
eating to its core vanquishing
the pith where memories cling
turning and turning into
morbid grey ash
she was bent
hurting
holding her elbows
her
fingertips white
he thought and then he didnt try to get inside them or pull them apart
had he
forced her
he might have broken the only remaining rigidity
that kept her
intact
and any attempt now to
remedy it
might have been more
than
she could possibly bear
their only choice was to
tolerate her immolating
melancholy
let a bridge
let some deeply-held vestige slowly
aggregate contract and then
assume that which she had lost grip of
began Wednesday
afternoon, June 4 completed 1954, Friday, 6 6.
14
