Love Lies Bleeding
By Michele Habel-Coffey
Amaranthus Caudatus for Algernon
For Charlie
And for my Grace
Loves lies bleeding
Dying in the cold
Dying on the headstone
Of the long gone
And seldom mourned
I am Alice
In Charlie’s backyard
Down the foxhole I go
In search of better flowers
Of Lotus
And Lilac
And a pill to make me big again
The white rabbit
Runs beside the mouse
His jaws clamped upon
The Eglantine
The mouse, tangled in
Forget-Me-Not,
stumbles
Remaining in between
The Rabbit
and poor Alice
Poor, poor me
I am ever chasing
Ever fading
A Cheshire grin
Left upon
An aching memory
Forget the pill
Give me a potion
I shall tread until I drown
Exhausted
By the wheel
And intoxicated
by the Wormwood