Hot Pink Lipstick

Here's a poem from my book, Digging to China, available in paperback and as an ebook, through Sweatshoppe Publications. Enjoy! (www.sweatshoppepublications.com/justin-w-price.html

 

Hot Pink Lipstick

It was the first dead body I’d seen,

waxy

soulless.

Hot pink lipstick:

I laughed at the choice.

Painted cheeks, rosy

like those of a doll.

Hands that had held mine

stroked my hair,

prepared my dinner,

now stiff,

folded

angelic, no longer capable

of love or embrace.

My grandmother

in a box lined with silk,

optimum comfort for the dead,

lips closed, unsmiling

blue eyes hiding behind shaded lids.

Red hair that had been dyed the day of her death,

her final living act, unknown

Reviews

[Mike Keenan]

Wow; I really like this, and how you satirize appearance vs. reality. Nice job. I would leave out the last word,which I think might make it more powerful.