YOUNG ADULT Poem: “Two Women on the Shore”, by Michelle Ahdout

I didn’t know if I stood beside or across my future,
Staring into the dark sea, I attempted to touch the water,
From afar, it reflected darkness:

A sky isolated from the stars above
alone, aloof, ambiguous.

However, as the droplets rolled down my wrists,
I was cleansed in purity of a long, lovely white dress:

It held nothing yet was stitched to display every inch of my curves,
Expressionless, yet it revealed the words sealed within my lips.

Spirits:
Were they a soul developed through imagination?
Or, did they haunt us within the motion of the wind?

I thought the white dress illuminated the angels of heaven,
But soon, I learned I was accompanied by the mother of Death.

crippled,cold, clouded
She displayed death as the purpose of life.