Mourning Melody

 

The night lived in the tendrils of her hair.

Like sea-washed silk, it had a moonlit shine;

and her eyes held a smile within their stare

whose delight was a transport to divine.

 

Her laughter and lace skirted on the wind

and fluttered on wings of a butterfly

whose gentle birth and unfortunate end

tilted a mirror of tears in the sky.

 

She bowed her head for the very last time

as the bullet turned her world to ashes

and struck her down while she was in her prime

as she closed the dark wing of her lashes.

 

The incense of dreams rises through the sky

floating on the brim of diurnal light,

disappears in the distance, lost to the eye,

like an eagle beyond the mountain height.

 

The quiet earth settles into her bones

forever silent, forever to be -

her fragile wings at the mercy of stones

that left us to mourn over Melody.

 

I close my eyes and brush the hair of night

until its shadow slips off of the trees

and falls like a dress with threads of starlight

across the cusp of the earth and the seas.

Author's Note

October 30, 2009 – 16-year old Melody Ross was shot while leaving Wilson High School’s homecoming football game in Long Beach, California. Her parents survived the Killing Fields of Cambodia. Melody didn’t survive the streets of America.

Reviews

[J. Alfred Prufrock]

you complete me. (and brush the hair of night... iloveit iloveit iloveit)

[Lydia Shutter]

"The night lived in the tendrils of her hair." The imagery in this line is stunning....it drew me into the magnificence of your poem. It is shocking and grievous that something like this can happen to an innocent young lady when she is leaving a homecoming game at her high school. The lacy soft imagery you employ is a sharp contrast to the horrifying act that occurred. Her poor parents will be tormented forever. We must stop the gun violence in this country. Too many such happenings are in the news every day. You made us sit up and take notice with your beautifully emotive words. I was very moved by this poem. Lydi**

[Linda Marie Van Tassell]

Thanks, Lydi. While I agree with you about the gun violence, we have to temper our emotions with sensibility. I am not one for the elimination of guns altogether, as I believe it deprives one of his Constitutional rights, not to mention that, if law abiding citizens are stripped of the right to own guns, only those who do not abide by the law are left with guns, which puts us at at peril. One only needs to look at Illinois and D.C. to see what the basic erosion of gun rights brings to the law abiding citizens, more deaths at the hands of those who have little respect for another's life. I don't know how you change a culture of violence without changing the culture itself. This primiarly means the eradication of poverty, the lack of education, and the lack of jobs. None of this can be changed by a government that promotes more of the same.

[Lydia Shutter]

Obviously this is a subject we could debate for quite a while. We all have different opinions on it. I can see it is certainly a volatile topic for you.

[Creepy Swine Guy]

This is beautifully written and so, so terribly sad. I am reminded of the words of the late Senator Robert F. Kennedy in his address on "The Mindless Menace of Violence" ...

“Whenever any American’s life is taken by another American unnecessarily – whether it is done in the name of the law or in the defiance of the law, by one man or a gang, in cold blood or in passion, in an attack of violence or in response to violence – whenever we tear at the fabric of the life which another man has painfully and clumsily woven for himself and his children, the whole nation is degraded.”

The violence just takes the breath from my very soul. We call some people animals, but this is an insult to animals, who very rarely kill for anything but food or self preservation.

[Gobinder Singh Dhindsa]

Nyc .. Do u read mine writing

[David Lewis Paget]

That is ....... horrifying, Linda. There is some sort of sickness in modern America which is busily infecting every other western nation with its drive-by shootings, random murders, soulless underclass. How heartbreaking to lose a daughter, sister, cousin in such a trivial manner, for no reason that can ever be expressed. It's even happening here now, in Australia, though thankfully not to the same extent - yet! Your poem brings her brief life into the light, to allow us to grieve, to feel, to reflect.

[Dean]

that is the kind of nation we are. And with the leadership we continue to choose---shall be. :-(

[Linda Marie Van Tassell]

Amen; and sadly, I have to agree. Our politicians are but a symptom of the disease, which is the ever-spiraling soullessness of the nation. I could write a novel if I get started on this subject. It honestly just sickens me. Every man for himself at what price?

[Dean]

Yes, I know the frustration. That doesn't help either. I am an optimist in spiritual time, a pessimist in reality

[Dean]

You don't need a novel. Your poetry can do it.

[Linda Marie Van Tassell]

I've actually been thinking on this for the last several days and hope to have time to write this weekend.

[Dean]

do it, please. I shall wait

[Linda Marie Van Tassell]

Will do. :-)

[icelandicblue]

This is simply heartbreaking. Your tribute sings with sadness:

The quiet earth settles into her bones
forever silent, forever to be -
her fragile wings at the mercy of stones
that left us to mourn over Melody.

I close my eyes and brush the hair of night
until its shadow slips off of the trees
and falls like a dress with threads of starlight
across the cusp of the earth and the seas.

I am truly moved by them all.

[Chris]

THAT hurt me...I felt it when the tone changed...and knew - just knew it was bad. Feeling it still.

[Sami Khalil]

This was a sad elegy but desrving in a great poetic style that touches the hearts...Thank you for sharing this with us...:)...............

[1]

Tears of enlightenment comes to mind reading this emotional piece....... Bravo! What a beautifully crafted tribute intertwined with the extreme tragedy that it is! I'm sure she's smiling at you with great love!

Gus O.