Kalliope - Vol. XXI:3

KALLIOPE, A JOURNAL OF WOMEN'S LITERATURE & ART

Selections From This Issue:

Flash Fiction & Prose Poetry - Introduction
Safety Tips by Michelle Perez
Requiem in F Minor by J.B. Bernstein

Requiem in F Minor
by J.B. Bernstein

for Karen

It is a dark dark day today, the dark is hot and black and God the room is black my heart is dark her heart has stopped the coffin's dark and hot and black and she will not Oh God don't boil her in black my mind is blank and bleak and gorged with heat and black and drenched with dark and dark Oh God and dark and hot she's gone and gone and gone was gone when she was born was born to be alone with dark and dark's inside my brain's outside her heart has stopped and stopped and stopped Oh God she's suffered so this babe abides the bleak the black will stop her heart has split in two by two we troll amazed we troll for Grace a wretch like me Oh Grace can't save a wretch like God can't save Oh God I love Oh God I want Oh God she's gone she's gone she's rising from the heat the room the dark the black she's Oh she's God she's left the dark the black the hot she's singing God She's singing Grace I hear her blind I see her eyes are open eyes amazed are sweet goodbyes the sound is sweet amazing sound is found how sweet the sound is sight amazing light as bright as Grace sweet Grace we chant goodbye, goodbye good Grace, good God Oh God, goodbye sweet child of Grace and God