How to Sort the Living from the Dead
       

Forget all the nonsense
about eyes opened or closed
or breathing
or brain waves

Ignore the sallow skin
the pulse
or even the way
they stare back at you

find the place
where the hands
are swollen with regret

find the place where
silence is the chest bone

find the dental imprints
of a life not eaten

find the eulogy
that is transfixed
in your dust bound bones

find the small minutes
where each of us
wander through
a fractured room

remember how to
immerse your amnesia
in embalming fluid

teach yourself
how to leave a body
and then
how to return

Tweet

Copyright © 2020 Connie Post All rights reserved
from Prime Meridian
Glass Lyre Press
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission