All night she watched
the sky bloom with stars.
Now it is morning.
Purple lilies, orange sunrise,
yellow sun.

Corners of his lips
ebb into a smile
As he unties knots
at her waist,
makes imprints
on soft wrists.
Blue crescent moons.

Bees hover overhead.
Their drone tapers away
above the trees.
A snake slithers by.
She remains still,
hopes he will leave
before her last breath.

Next year when she is found
her mother will be heard to say,
Even my girl’s bones
were beautiful.

____
Linda Hughes received a B.A. in advertising and Journalism from Central State University in 1990. Her poetry has previously been published in Abstract Contemporary Expressions, OVS, The Critical Pass Review, Mangrove Review, Art Art Alliance Broadsides, Art Poems, Florida Southwest Anthology and others. She grew up on a farm in Oklahoma and now lives in Florida with her husband, three cats and any animals that emerge from the jungle surrounding their home.

Photography by Linda Foley.