“They found her in the shallow end,
amongst the reeds and weeds
of the left hand bottom corner.
Apparently, he used to take her to picnic
there back when they were courting.
She was wearing her Sunday dress
and was three months gone, already.
Dan said it was awful, her beautiful hair
was full of crawling pond skaters,
Jesus, gives me the heebie-jeebies.
And there was actual frogspawn
under one of her armpits, imagine that,
I actually threw up when I first heard.
Of course, the rats had gotten her face
good and proper but that’s to be expected
isn’t it? Softest part of the body and all.
But it’s the pond skaters and the frogspawn
that I’ll be having nightmares about;
hark at me, I’ve just crossed myself
and there’s nothing evil or wicked in it
which kind of makes it all ten times worse!”
Paul Tristram is a Welsh writer who has poems, short stories, sketches, and photography published in many publications around the world. He yearns to tattoo porcelain bridesmaids instead of digging empty graves for innocence at midnight; this too may pass, yet. He has two books: ‘Poetry From The Nearest Barstool’, and ‘The Raven And The Vagabond Heart’, a collaboration with Bethany W. Pope. You can also read his poems and stories here.
Categories: Poetry
Tags: e-zine, ezine, hyperbole, longing, melancholy, melancholy hyperbole, new, Paul Tristram, poem, poet, poetry, poets, submit, The Square Pond, writing
Melancholy Hyperbole 