Sunday, March 27, 2011

The Heiress

The ghost of the dead heiress
hovers anxiously over the crowd of bargainers below
Who rifle through her dusty hat boxes,
mothy mink coats, sour-smelling bathroom curtains
and unmailed Christmas cards

"Fifty cents?" an onlooker haggles
while Her Majesty bites ethereal lips overhead.
Another barters two bucks for her umbrella,
the one with the crystal-laden handle
she bought in Paris in 1929

Like the grimy recipe cards strewn on the floor,
she collapses in their midst dramatically.
The heiress's estate is picked over by these wretches,
her earthly possessions divied out
in effortless Saturday afternoon transactions.

Sobbing invisibly from above
the ghost knows that her decadent umbrella
will never again smell of the Paris rain
or shelter her frigid skin
from the unforgiving elements


This poem was written for Jingle's Poetry Potluck--the prompt this week was "Trips, Travels, and Vacations."  Visit her page for more wonderful entries!

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

good one and really nice! here's mine- http://fiveloaf.wordpress.com/2010/04/07/frozen-fears/

Cynthia M said...

Oh...so sad and poignant. Beautifully written.

JamieDedes said...

Death is democracy! We all end the same and some feel regret. Nice work. Happy Potluck! :-)

Anonymous said...

poor woman! that is so sad, she needs tofind the light.

PhotoDiction said...

Poignant sadness, here - but so wonderfully expressed. Very nice.

Jae Rose said...

The dust and loss was palpable..all rain must drift from somewhere else..even Paris..Jae

Meryl said...

What an interesting perspective...and I loved the imagery, especially the last lines. Great post.

Anonymous said...

oh, fantastic imagery,
haunting words..

A++

Jingle said...

Well done..

Happy Potluck.

ScottlB said...

Very nice but sad how things we cherish only end up being a bargain price for others..

Rashmi said...

Wonderful thought provoking poem...

annell4 said...

I liked it very much, it was a visual picture, you are a wordsmith for sure!

Unknown said...

Brilliant... glad you came to me so that I could find you. Really good write. I'll be back!

Judy Roney said...

What a wonderful look into an estate sale and the inhabitants there. I recognized myself in ,"unmailed Christmas Cards", and see that the estate owner was a bit of a horder. :)Great work!

http://judyidliketosay.blogspot.com/2010/12/there-came-day.html

Mike Patrick said...

To paraphrase, one woman's treasures is another woman's trash.

vivinfrance said...

This one's definitely a keeper. The musty moments come miraculously alive!