Still Life
The angel cried and shook her head
and swept the infant far away.
The mother held out her arms and begged and wept,
let me hold her just once against my breast.
But the angel said,
there is no time, there is no time
she’s far too beautiful for earth,
it lacks the innocence and the joy
that will protect her from any hurt.
She swept away the precious girl
from her grieving mother who had laboured
all her life to give this baby birth.
The castles and the carriages and the sunlit sky
of the mother’s childhood,
melted beneath the dragon’s fire
that killed an innocent cry.
To comfort her, the angel sent
the mother dreams that night,
of unicorns and promises that love still lay ahead,
but along the way darkening clouds and grey slate stones
blocked her path; she must battle through her daughter’s death.
She’d have to climb this mountain of despair
and bear up under the crushing weight
of stolen hope and crumbling joy
until her body brought forth life again.
Yet still the angel’s voice rang woefully through her head—
there is no time, there is no time
she’s far more beautiful in death.
Lisa Lahey’s short stories and poems have been published in 34th Parallel Magazine, Spaceports and Spidersilk, Altered Reality Magazine, Why Vandalism? Suddenly, and Without Warning, Five on the Fifth, Ariel Chart Magazine, Vita Poetica, and Literally Stories. Her work has also been accepted by Same Faces Collection, Piker Press, Epater, Bindweed, The Pink Hydra, and Creepy Podcast.
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