This Song Is Not For You by Debora Ewing

I cannot write this song
for you — the plaints are sad

penguins don’t dance here
dreams are off-color

this song is an ancient rose
mother in a lost garden

bread left on the table
a library grown full with nettles

this song is pomegranates
because they mourn

and olive oil strangled
from the throats of virgins

this song is a spine set free
the hollow corpse asleep

a lone black swan married
for life, cadging a death

this song is bent willow writing
leaves into murky water

sap gone to amber, beetles
buried, cicadas in larval stasis

this song is a white-tail deer
tongue out in a bloated field

a life once lived is extant
promise in every waking tear

you beg a limelight waltz
my song is not for you

From: https://dodgingtherain.com/2021/11/01/debora-ewing-these-songs-are-not-for-you/

Date: 2021

By: Debora Ewing (19??- )