Undressing After The Memorial

Crushed paper in coat pocket
Is this what I read
The room had become like an orchard
they let loose on her life
with small scenarios of scissor
made a pattern of her
unforeseen and therefore
I made a conclusion against destiny
Conversations like windmills I hear
The city won the league tonight there is cheering in the distance
Meanwhile dressing gown thoughts of her name written in gold
on the stone what surprised me
was how clean they were surfaces like black ice
and it didn’t rain despite all the talk of it
Did I know her just for that moment or does it go on
as one can unexpectedly start adoring things later in life
at 10pm he drove me home I could still but didn’t want to think
the hardest substance on earth is transparent this kind of emptiness

Emma Jahoda-Brown is a writer and photographer. She splits her time between Los Angeles and New York City. She holds a BFA in photography and media from California Institute of the Arts and an MFA in poetry from Columbia University.