Feeding the Corpse

Day after day you feed the corpse
You know the corpse is already dead
But it assumes the most lifelike positions

And this arouses
Your pity and your – Never mind
You feed the corpse laughter

And the corpse seems to laugh
You feed the corpse sorrow
And its lips seem to twist

Into rainbows of despair
You wonder why
You maintain the corpse

After all these years
You don’t even like it
The way it stares when you brush its hair

The weight of it in the dark
Weight that is always there
The corpse you suspect is your only friend

The only one who will be with you
At what you call the end
For the corpse of course

It is always the end
While it feeds you too are feeding
When it assumes the posture of the living

You feel you truly live
But no matter what you stuff it with 
Its maw yawns

On its fleshy hinge
A door you cannot
Help but enter

Through the death you live

by Joy Ladin