Lady Longfingers of Sorrow

Lady Longfingers of Sorrow

Grief is a ticking clock
Paper skin, frozen twilight
A crown of thorns
The last goodbye you heard them say
And the ghosts of all the things you didn’t
Loitering in the merciless silence
Mocking you
Grief is the rotten bitter juice left behind
Of all the sweet berries you savored
while you were alive
In the life before this one
The unadulterated excavation of your spirit
And your future
With them
Grief is your head in your hands
Your long savage fingers keeping anyone from getting too close
Like a tentacle wall
While you pretend you can still see
While you promise you’re moving on
While you promise you’re fine

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Historical sources utilized:

Portrait of a Noblewoman Dressed in Mourning by Jacopo da Empoli. Oil on canvas. 1600

Christ as the Man of Sorrows by N.J. Strixner after Q. Matsys. Colour lithograph. 1818

Anguish by August Friedrich Schenck. Oil on canvas. 1878

American Crow from Birds of America by John James Audubon, etched by William Home Lizars. 1827

Japanese still life print from section V plate I in The Ornamental Arts Of Japan. by G.A. Audsley. 1884

Strawberries and plums by Dirk Jan Hendrik Joosten. 1828

Cherries by V. Granberry. Chromolithograph. 1861

Five butterflies, three beetles and four insects by unknown. 18th century