Before the rot (Day 52 of 100 -- Poetry challenge)

I saw a corpse today
she was ashen grey
wasted away

I’m breathless from the pace
of this place

She wore a lovely dress
with lace and a ribbon bow
crossed-bone grace

Graven face

Screen Shot 2018-04-27 at 1.02.32 PM.png

All pieces are newly crafted and posted shortly after in adherence to the rules of the challenge. All the photos are mine unless otherwise stated.
Entry for Day 52 of 100 Days of Poetry Challenge by @d-pend.
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Those '-ace' rhymes are just, well, ace! The last one stranded out there both structurally and rhythmically, so powerful because it carries all the tension of what I suppose in musical terms would be called an unresolved note.

It feels effortless but I know it was probably anything but. The comparison between 'corpse' and 'graven' is also so striking, and 'crossed-bone' such a specific and original image, you just can't help but stop and savour it.

An exceptionally well measured write, and pretty, despite the central metaphor!

Thank you ever so.

There is an interesting backstory (prompt) to this and hopefully at some point I will be able to share it.

I adore an unresolved note and am tickled (not surprissed) that you see the relationship here.

May the rest of your evening be Grand @lazarus-wist :)

Definitely something that feels like one of your spoken-word pieces. If I were looking at it as a "standard" poem, I'd question the third stanza not rhyming, though I guess its last line does rhyme with the last one.
I still am curious about the extra spacing in-line, and whether I'm right in my analysis of it being where a spoken word piece will have a sort of extra pause, or the last syllable preceding it being drawn out.

Now, as to the piece, the last line in the third stanza first read to me as "Washed away," maybe because of the picture you used at the top of the image, or maybe because it fit in my mind with "ashen grey."

The line that stands out most to me in this piece is "Graven face."
That brings to my mind two images: Graven idols, and dice. Yes, the tone of the piece makes it sound as if it's related to "the grave," but graven is the past participicle of "grave" in the engrave meaning of the word.
And it still fits.
A sculpted face.
Sculpted by life.
Sculpted like the crossed-bone grace, like old whale-bone corsets.

She's an idol. You can pray to her.
Before she washes away.
And the dice? Well, look at your image. What is a face that wasted away, if not a rolled die, with all those empty orifices, now looking like pips on a die?

And the question then becomes, what did the die roll, that she died in this way?
And who was she, that she is now a graven idol?
Until she wastes away?
Until, or since, the rot has set?

I'm breathless from the pace of this place.

This piece could easily be seen as being a piece of memento mori, but I feel it is the other way around. This piece, especially with the couplet I quoted, feels more like looking at the corpse in longing, for its ability to rest. It is quiet, it is dignified. It is in peace.

So then, "before the rot sets," speaks more of us living, than her, who's after the rot has already come and gone, and thus, metaphorically, life was the rot.

It does feel that way some days ... dead tired:) A serious rhyming piece with spot on metaphors:)

::giggles::
I love that you worked in "dead tired".. cleaver lady, you. <3

I loved the poem. The start of the poem made me love it. I reread it to enjoy it more. :D

Thank you, @abhinavmendhe. You are always so kind.

You're welcome. Thank you for being kind yourself.

I love it. The image swirled in with your day... xo

Thank you so much for sharing all that with me -- Susan continues to inspire, even as a wasted away corpse. The before and after images are amazing and utterly gorgeous. Her sweet little fresh corpse, so cherubic, and then half a century later her skeletal remains, much like those in Sicily's catacombs, express a beauty beyond the flesh and yet of death and of the way in which we are all headed… ashes to dust.
I'd love it if you show the before and after shots here in the comments as I feel it has to be you and not me. <3

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