Kelly Matthews English
Let me teach you how to lie.
Each night locks turned
we sing: I’m not afraid to die.
Deep in sleep we meet
a heavier freight; face the stone
space inside the mind. You see
I am afraid of everything
because I cannot close my eyes.
Once a mother lost her children
and saw forever
how they looked at Death,
still back he gazed–
tunnel-mouthed
red underripe lips, they were gone
into the rest of it
and all that came, a dumb-rent nothing.
I want you to repeat after me.
When he comes, I want you to sing it
just like this. I want you to
close your eyes to the dark and
use this trick, steal away.