Roots and Rituals
when you say,
Give me silence,
purify my sour heart –
I prepare yellow gills of liminal poison
brush damp earth from caps
scented of hoar and musk,
slice then grind under mortar and pestle
emetic fungi, season with butter and salt.
Amnesia wavers on the skin of your lips,
on the edge of abyss, I wipe your drowning
sweat, wrap your chilling bones
as we hold the relinquished close
between us.
when I say,
death wafts in this house,
I do not like the way it dwells –
I scrub clean the iron pot
the cerulean bowl
our fingerprints melting with soap
snap shut the book, snuff the candles,
stave off the grave once more
Inspired by the film Phantom Thread.
Published in Mojave Heart Review, 2019
Charlotte Hamrick 
Excellent, Charlotte! So many layers in this.
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Thanks, Merril! I’m aggravated tho because WordPress messed up its form and it won’t stay fixed. 🤬
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😢. It looks fine to me!
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wonderful Charlotte. just wonderful. and more than mere Halloween. thank you for sharing this!
“I scrub clean the iron pot”, and yea, scrubbing as I write.
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Thanks, Neil! Happy to see you here.
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Staving off the grave…it seems much of our life is consumed with that.
I think we all dislike the new block editor. (K)
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Somehow, I haven’t lost classic! Shhhhhh. But it gets wonky sometimes.
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Lucky!
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