There was a Man
“Give it me.”
The quivering thief
was awakened by a charnel
growl and chalky phalanges
probing his bedclothes
for the gold ring he pinched.
With fingers crimped into a pink
claw, my son reads me the tale.
Flashlight grazes his cheekbones.
It's the kind of story told
by those near life's mysterious ends:
grandmothers and boys.
The kind Shakespeare's Prince Mamilius
would have told the queen.
After a few words the child was interrupted.
Soon after, he died.
But my young son already knows the tale
from the prince's one and only line.
There was a man dwelt by a churchyard...
January Review, Issue 1, 2019
“Give it me.”
The quivering thief
was awakened by a charnel
growl and chalky phalanges
probing his bedclothes
for the gold ring he pinched.
With fingers crimped into a pink
claw, my son reads me the tale.
Flashlight grazes his cheekbones.
It's the kind of story told
by those near life's mysterious ends:
grandmothers and boys.
The kind Shakespeare's Prince Mamilius
would have told the queen.
After a few words the child was interrupted.
Soon after, he died.
But my young son already knows the tale
from the prince's one and only line.
There was a man dwelt by a churchyard...
January Review, Issue 1, 2019
