More About the Dead Woman

(‘Less is more’)

The dead woman
is watching.

She wants to hang on.

The dead woman
taking long sniffs

lets the heat burst.

The dead woman
sits

without turning.

She dreams
that the rain

is nothing.



Threads:
I wanted to try an erasure poem.
I had discovered that my 'Dead Woman' poem was incomplete, as the form is supposed to include a second piece: 'More About ...'  (So this is the companion piece to the first one.)
I did the erasure on my own original Dead Woman poem, with the idea of saying something new (more) while paring it right down (less).

The Dead Woman

The dead woman
wants to embrace you;
she is watching
as you sleep.

The dead woman
regrets that her children
are no longer babies.
She wants to hang on.

The dead woman
smells flowers with gusto
taking long sniffs,
then tastes them.

The dead woman
has no hat for the sun.
She lets the heat
burst on her face.

The dead woman
in front of the television
sits without turning it on.
She has x-ray vision.

The dead woman
is a camera. She dreams
of a hoard of images
and snaps and keeps them.

The dead woman
bailing herself out of jail
tells herself that the rain
will wash away prison stink.

The dead woman
is laughing
because being dead
is nothing like she expected.


For a dVerse prompt: write from the perspective of dead man, or woman (based on Marvin Bell's 'Dead Man' poems). I wrote this when I was very tired and half-asleep, so as to let the ideas well up from the subconscious. I wanted a different kind of logic from the everyday.

I discovered the form needs a part 2: 'More About ...'  It is here.