lavender world

By Anna Starkey

bury me in fields of purple and pink. 

let wildflowers grow from my body. 

violet roots tangle with green veins, 

soil fertilized by my decomposing corpse. 

this is life after death. 

 

in another life, 

we meet at the field 

and lay as long as we like. 

boundaries between bodies blur 

beneath pleiades’ dull glow. 

seven sisters turned angels. 

the star of bethlehem behind us, 

though i’ve never felt this sacred. 

divinity defined by her lips 

 

but in this life, 

i pray from my self prescribed grave. 

god, can you still hear me six feet deep? 

do flowers bloom from my tears? 

it was you that brandished the shovel, 

but it was i who asked you to. 

 

let me die, 

if you please. 

i don’t care. 

but if i must live, 

let me live  

in a lavender world.