The First Time I Saw You in a Dress

By Bashost

I touch your face in the casket
and feel the bone just below.
Soon you’ll be a skeleton in a blue dress
and the smile I loved since birth
will peek at me between the aisles
of Walmart around Halloween.

It will be your new face, come October
I’m not sure how long it takes
but once I close the lid
you’ll never be the same.

I shouldn’t have come
because this is how I’ll picture you now
and it doesn’t even look like you.
I’m asking you to haunt me, like you promised.
You said when you die I’ll feel you in the breeze
but it’s March
and the wind is cold. 

Unauthorized Copying Is Prohibited. Ask the author first.
Copyright 2014 Bashost
Published on Wednesday, May 28, 2014.     Filed under: "Poetry"
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Comments on "The First Time I Saw You in a Dress"

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  • A former member wrote: It's hard to describe the level of empathy you've put into me with this piece. It was brief, and tragic, and beautifully done. Thank you for sharing this.

  • malevolencefixation On Sunday, September 7, 2014, malevolencefixation (22)By person wrote:

    This is so sad and touching. Remembering people as they looked at their funerals is depressing. I guess it just further points out how separate our minds and bodies are. So separate, that even our appearance changes when the presence of our minds are gone. Great poem

  • TropicalSnowstorm On Thursday, June 5, 2014, TropicalSnowstorm (1703)By person wrote:

    "I shouldn’t have come because this is how I’ll picture you now" - I can relate, that is why I prefer closed caskets... Scholar

  • A former member wrote: One of the best pieces I've come across yet. I've been fortunate because the only people in my life who've died were old and I had plenty of warning. This gave me a real sense of what it's like to lose a loved one. Gave me chills. 10/10 Scholar

  • Phalanx On Saturday, May 31, 2014, Phalanx (677)By person wrote:

    Truly a killer. It meets day light with a grimace. Never leaving isn't always the context you expect.

  • Bashost On Thursday, May 29, 2014, Bashost (24)By person wrote:

    Thanks so much everyone. It felt good to write this. It was long overdue...

  • FadedBlues On Thursday, May 29, 2014, FadedBlues (2172)By person wrote:

    ...excellent elegy. the breeze will be comforting...

  • A former member wrote: Chilling wind...aptly captured. Reminds me of the movie Idlewild. Percival's father, the mortician, had to prepare his wife's body for the funeral, and as spirals dance so Percival fared the same fate with his only love...roll on, roll on...yes...but her face will live on, when death fades from your mind you will remember who she was, not what lack has drawn of her. Honoured.

  • A former member wrote: Splendid! I love how concise it is, it brought chills down my spine...

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