Hear me read
the poem as
an MP3 file.
Watch me read
the poem as
a YouTube video.
Music: Sonata in G Minor --
Introduzione: Largo;
Ist Movement:
Allegro.
By Muzio Clementi.
Performed by Nathan Eckel
at the
Free Music Archive
under a Public Domain
license.
Eighty-eight spends much of life in bed,
Interred beyond her time in drugs and
pain.
Grateful only for the gift of sleep,
Having lost the will to laugh or
weep,
The shrunken doll repeats just one
refrain,
Yearning for the comforts of the
dead.
Even so, the trail of pills has led
Into a world she grapples with in
vain,
Grasping for a grace she cannot keep,
Harsh and vivid hauntings of the
brain
That make of life a stew of joy and
dread.
Copyright by Nicholas Gordon. Free for personal or non-commercial use.
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