Ring around
Rose pedals
On a closed casket
Warm rain
Running streaks
On a mother’s face
Displaced and lowered
A nation’s heads
In memory.
Pockets full
Of posed questions
Pose thought
Thoughts pose words
Prose and verse
Posed thoughts
Prose rehearsed
Posed the first
Shots.
Ashy legs
Ashy knees
As she lays
As she bleeds
As she’s lifted
To a stretcher from the ground
Ashes to ashes
We all fall.