A Subject I Know Well: An Apostrophe to Death | Teen Ink

A Subject I Know Well: An Apostrophe to Death

February 28, 2012
By AlaskaFrost GOLD, Acushnet, Massachusetts
AlaskaFrost GOLD, Acushnet, Massachusetts
17 articles 7 photos 131 comments

I am engulfed by night,
inscrutable and infinite,
perpetual blackness.
There was nothing of me
after your visit. You took me
and led me to oblivion, alone to fade,
wither into a hollow shell,
break and disintegrate into dust
swept away by the wind.

And now that I am blacker than this blackness,
caged under your sunless roof, and
left with the unbearable stench of decay,
I wonder how you snare your victims,
how cunning your devices must be
to have imprisoned me in my own self.
(Clever, clever)

But I am not fading anymore.
My fingernails are crusted with dirt, your darkest stuff, and
Around me lay the ruins of what once was,
rotting carcasses strewn everywhere
being swallowed by the dust
gnawing at the remains.

I can see this now as a luminous source
pierces through your dark -
(evidently you missed a spot - a fatal error).
I could bathe in this moonlight, anoint myself in your dust.
No, I will not decay.

No fading, All raging,
-Death, you have failed.

The author's comments:
This is not about physical death, but rather it's about death of self (and eventually finding yourself). The word "subject" in the title has a double meaning, and I subconsciously drew from John Donne. I only realized the connection after the fact.

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This article has 22 comments.


on Mar. 17 2012 at 7:23 pm
AlaskaFrost GOLD, Acushnet, Massachusetts
17 articles 7 photos 131 comments
Wow thank you so much!! That's a HUGE compliment!

dreamshaker said...
on Mar. 17 2012 at 7:21 pm
dreamshaker, Clarkston, Michigan
0 articles 0 photos 64 comments
Wow.
This is simply stunning. I can't believe this isn't in the magazine - this is absolute perfection.

I don't havnay advice - there's not a thing I would change