The large stone head moved its
gaping eyes and mouth and sang,
“I’m so sad, I’m so sad,”
while oceans of sorrow washed
over me, through me

I cried for the lost boy
who went down, so rapidly,
into the clear blue water,
faster than I could dive after —
another one gone —
“I’m so sad,” sang his remaining brothers
(he hadn’t been the first)

I woke up remembering
the story pieces that had tried
to weave themselves into me
as I tried to escape them in sleep —
kept me awake trying to catch me
while I tried to sink away
into the precise colors of winter grasses
and windswept trees

I woke again, and saw
my mind had solved it:
I told myself a sad story, that’s all.
Told myself a sad story, and believed it.
That’s all, nothing I need to fix,
nothing that my earnest living
won’t put right.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 27, 2015