Sophie — in her sleep

Sophie      in her sleep      says

       Thank you but I would rather not have a caterpillar inserted into my corpse  …

       Near-corpse, as it were  …

       Thank you, thank you  …

 and I think      how beautiful to know

            that death hovers near always

            that life for this moment may be chosen instead

            that an unbroken chrysalis is not prison but home

            that someone precious can look at wriggling, burrowing despair and say I’d rather not

            that from a pillowed head flow diamonds

Thank you, thank you      for this

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First published in 2023 by the Encore Poetry Project in Encore Books and Records’s storefront, and in Polyphony (Encore Poetry Project vol. 1).