For some, the miracle is written
in corpses. Can you rediscover humor,
even before anger ceases?
Flies are masters, though they will never
say so — winnowing creatures down to bone,
the finest editors the world has ever known.
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Today’s prompt at Imaginary Garden with Real Toads was to choose up to 13 words from the following quote (I’ve bolded my random selections) and use them in a poem that has something to say about metaphor:
“People disappear when they die. Their voice, their laughter, the warmth of their breath. Their flesh. Eventually their bones. All living memory of them ceases. This is both dreadful and natural. Yet for some there is an exception to this annihilation. For in the books they write they continue to exist. We can rediscover them. Their humor, their tone of voice, their moods. Through the written word they can anger you or make you happy. They can comfort you. They can perplex you. They can alter you. All this, even though they are dead. Like flies in amber, like corpses frozen in the ice, that which according to the laws of nature should pass away is, by the miracle of ink on paper, preserved. It is a kind of magic.” ~ Diane Setterfield
Marilyn Rauch Cavicchia 
Oh, wow, Marilyn, that reveal at the end had me whooping… Just so!
Thank you, Kerry! Always good to get a whoop. 🙂
An awesome poem about flies! Who knew it could be done so cleverly? Apparently you!
Thanks, Margaret! I’m in an insect frame of mind, apparently. 😉
This is absolutely fantastic!😍
Thanks, Sanaa! I certainly would never have written it without the prompt from Magaly — found poetry can take you down some pretty strange roads.
Fine editors indeed.smiles. this is very clever.
I agree with Sherry, this poem is clever and fun,, 🙂
So brilliant and original.
My husband kept on check why I kept on saying, “Oh! Oh! Oh, wow!” I didn’t realize I was saying it, but I did. Wow, lady, that beginning just makes the blood do things… and then, boom! the rest travels right into the bones. This is fantastic–metaphor, motif, mood… and the seeds the poetic inquiries plants in the mind. Just… wow.
whoop! whoop! Fine editors they are indeed. Clever and dark.
well this is brilliant. and funny. and profound.
really glad you shared it.
Wow. Thank you!