On the Eve of the Burial                Download a PDF of this text for printing.

By Inkaliisa Voionmaa

Clothes of mourning are hung on a

hanger that clings to my closet.

Draped over the rigid plastic

a slate-gray bra with polka dots

nuzzles a black silk dress, as a

pair of cotton panties watches

over them and weeps for the dead.

A pair of chestnut pantyhose

wrangle themselves around the hook

of the apprehensive hanger.

In the morning I will wake up

and enclose myself in those clothes.