Victoria Anderson | “The Queen’s Lament”

A dollop here, a mess of particles there,
a dance no one dares anymore.
the narrative got punctured,
and some of you are dead.

I have sat on the shelf called wife
but it was melancholia, late
and last in the soon.

I was made by being apart
where all the love-dead
live and breathe.

Besotted with interiors,
I carry the hive within.

(John Asbery, Olena Kalytiak Davis, Jo Shapcott)

Published in Cape Rock.