Keystone


by Pavel Chichikov

Clear vodka, white aspirin

Her brain would not work

To make love to the sunset

Come with me to the roof top

Where we young women go

In the cool of dusk

I will cross the boundary now

Between the white ledge and the dark one

Across the wall

Hold me by the hands, young friends –

Something wants to leave me now

And lead me to the end

It is I, it is I

No more will I live today

By nightfall I will die

They held her by the hands

Her two friends pleading, screaming

But she already death-led, stood undreaming

Twenty-one, a youthful one –

Vodka could not hold her up

Aspirin make her stand

Clear vodka, white aspirin

A heavy, sluggish wind

And she let go of them

The living arch that holds us up

Would not hold her –

She was the keystone falling

Down it came, and with her we,

All the brick and mortar,

Rubble – Christ Jesus mercy

Who will take her body up

To those who loved and carried her

And set her in the wall?

Christ Jesus mercy, lift her up

And bring her home –

They also fall

Visit Pavel's website at Grey Owl Press.

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