Stories Where No One Dies

Stories Where No One Dies
© Surazeus
2023 08 14

While exploring new frontier of unthought 
to invent new emotions beyond those 
that tangle our bodies in loyal trust, 
she wanders beyond walls of paradise 
to dance with demons in the wilderness 
who dissolve and reassemble her soul. 

The girl brings plates of food to customers 
who cannot see beyond mask of her face, 
then disappears in silent beams of light 
refracted slantwise through cathedral glass 
to highlight absence of her blood-fueled soul 
that aches when she walks home after midnight. 

Her mother lies in coffin of her bed, 
connected by wires and tubes to this world, 
so she reads novel her mother loved best 
about the woman stuck in urban hell 
who leaves her husband and journeys to Rome 
where she she falls in love with the vampire king. 

Foul stink of death emanates from frail form 
of the oldest woman still in this world, 
yellow paper skin wrinkled over bones, 
so the girl sets roses around her bed, 
then tells beautiful lies about her life 
with husband and children in their nice home. 

Though still alive after ten thousand years, 
her mother floats in ocean of strange dreams 
about when she is dancing by the lake 
till the man on the black horse grabs her arm 
and forces her to work in mines of Hellas 
clawing diamonds from cavern of illusions. 

Noting how brass and tin solidify 
into bronze blade she hones with silent rage, 
she stands before grim Orcus in red robe 
and breaks his rusty trident with three strikes, 
then hacks off his head with howl of triumph, 
so Minerva crowns herself Queen of Hades. 

The girl in the yellow dress sits in church, 
polished black shoes scuffing on the wood floor 
when she stands to sing hymn about the savior, 
then follows coffin out to the graveyard 
where Hamlet shovels dirt to fill the void 
as she stares at the raven on the sign. 

I want to write stories where no one dies, 
the girl whispers to the ancient plum tree 
as she writes tales in the blank book of life 
that arrange puzzle of her memories 
in fragments of disconnected events 
that refuse to explain meaning of life.