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2000 Reynolds Award Winner Gigi's Ghost |
The shade of her jaw
descended on her neck.
A rift in her lip,
purple and stale,
heaved in and out,
with her every breath.
A gray stripe slithered
through black hair,
and a still, murky ceiling
stared down at her.Her clinical bed
and her plastic sheets
were as pallid as a spooks
covered in ash.
The television flickered
as an evangelical man
delivered redemption
and immortality on channel 21.
And Mary Gene began to die
alone in her apartment
in Austin's drenched December.In a serene sleep
her dreams bathed
her thoughts like the rain
bathed the dark streets.
And for a moment,
she was not conscious of
the adversity of breathing.
She waltzed in her dream.
And legs that had once been
pained and ineffectual
were now as supple as summer winds
through magnolia trees.When the moment broke
her eyes flashed open.
Frightened and tortured
by her fleeting breath,
she began to mouth a scream.
She reached out
to seize the horrible air,
clawing at the grim oxygen.
Then the moon blinked,
and she fell back in her bed.
They told her family
she died
peacefully in her sleep.
[Return to the Select Entries from Nota Bene 2000.]