The Marital Bed

by Carol Alena Aronoff

Alone in the presence of

Married to a ghost

She lay in a flurry of feathers and frills 

Invisible to all but the unintended

Phantom on the other side

At the far edge

Weighted presence

Absent

Light years from

Her

Thoughts of another star system 

Birds on the ceiling mourn

Ivy has ceased to vine

Dead leaves on the ficus desperate

To 

fall

She never stirs from

Honeymoon suspended

The only sound is love

abandoned

* * * * *

Carol Alena Aronoff, Ph.D. is a psychologist, teacher and poet. Her work has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies and has won several prizes. She was twice nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She has published a chapbook (Cornsilk) and 4 books of her poems and photographs: The Nature of Music, Cornsilk, Her Soup Made the Moon Weep, Blessings From an Unseen World as well as Dreaming Earth’s Body (with artist Betsie Miller-Kusz). Currently, she resides in rural Hawaii.