She wasn’t sure how she had become days of mourning.
It began with a pall, a thick viscous scrim
that changed what she saw, sawed herself into
halves and quarters and post-dissection she noticed
days had turned into weeks into months into years
into moths (what was this closet? where had she gone?)
and altogether a knotted bundle
that could not be spent, or misspent,
there was no economy to the quivering mass
of darkening days past, days she had become.
Knowing that escape was both impossible and inevitable,
she returned to the staggered fiction
of nights with no memory,
nights in which days of mourning
factored in little to none
to all.
About John Biscello
Originally from Brooklyn, NY, novelist, poet, performer, playwright and filmmaker, John Biscello, has lived in the high-desert grunge-wonderland of Taos, New Mexico since 2001.
He is the author of six novels, Broken Land, a Brooklyn Tale, Raking the Dust, Nocturne Variations, No Man’s Brooklyn, The Last Furies, and No One Dreams in Color; a collection of stories, Freeze Tag, two poetry collections, Arclight and Moonglow on Mercy Street; and a fable, The Jackdaw and the Doll, illustrated by Izumi Yokoyama. He also adapted classic fables, which were paired with the vintage illustrations of artist, Paul Bransom, for the collection: Once Upon a Time, Classic Fables Reimagined. His plays have been staged and performed both nationally and internationally.
