Grace by Holly Day

Grace

I am too old to be photographed gracefully, there are

too many lines and not enough decent stories

to go with them. I tell you this

as you try to take my picture once again, tell you

that these are pictures that belong only

above an obituary, don’t show these to anyone

until they’re requested

by those I leave behind.

I close my eyes and lie back on the bed and I

hear you take the pictures anyway, at me

stretched out naked on the sheets, leave nothing imagined, I

imagine autopsies, embalming, the careful hands

of a cosmetology student as she tries

to make me look lifelike enough to set before an audience.

You tell me you still find me beautiful, even now

I don’t believe you.

Holly Day’s poetry has recently appeared in The Cape Rock, New Ohio Review, and Gargoyle. Her newest poetry collections are A Perfect Day for Semaphore(Finishing Line Press),  In This Place, She Is HerOwn (Vegetarian Alcoholic Press), A Wall to Protect Your Eyes(Pski’s Porch Publishing),I'm in a Place Where Reason Went Missing(Main Street Rag Publishing Co.), and The Yellow Dot of a Daisy(Alien Buddha Press)