when Mia died, a part of me
crumbled with her mortal bits
after all I’d watched her grow
from a dollop of cream and chocolate
into a canine cascade
of rippling cocker-spaniel hair
a beacon of permanence
thumbtacked to all my milestones.
the moon was limpid white
when the gardener dug the loam
at the eastern corner of the lawns
and we lowered her into the earth
planting a peach sapling above,
that flowered in four summers.
then in the fifth year of her passing,
the first fruits strung like Christmas lights
thrust through their leafy covers,
I watched with a ripening heart
the peaches plump like garnets
weigh down the boughs
the velvet sheen of their skins
the texture of spaniel’s ears.
Oormila Vijayakrishnan Prahlad is a Sydney based artist, poet, and pianist. She holds a Masters in English and is a member of Sydney’s North Shore Poetry Project and Authora Australis. Her recent works have been published in Red Eft Review, Glass Poetry Journal’s Poets Resist, Eunoia Review and other magazines.
crumbled with her mortal bits
after all I’d watched her grow
from a dollop of cream and chocolate
into a canine cascade
of rippling cocker-spaniel hair
a beacon of permanence
thumbtacked to all my milestones.
the moon was limpid white
when the gardener dug the loam
at the eastern corner of the lawns
and we lowered her into the earth
planting a peach sapling above,
that flowered in four summers.
then in the fifth year of her passing,
the first fruits strung like Christmas lights
thrust through their leafy covers,
I watched with a ripening heart
the peaches plump like garnets
weigh down the boughs
the velvet sheen of their skins
the texture of spaniel’s ears.
Oormila Vijayakrishnan Prahlad is a Sydney based artist, poet, and pianist. She holds a Masters in English and is a member of Sydney’s North Shore Poetry Project and Authora Australis. Her recent works have been published in Red Eft Review, Glass Poetry Journal’s Poets Resist, Eunoia Review and other magazines.