A combined Sonnet and Golden Shovel after Michel de Montaigne’s essay: “That Our Happiness Must Not Be Judged Until After Our Death”
So listen to noises in your stomach,
there are languages inside. Keep those who
are hungry in your ear for the dumb-luck
spirits making bets on your home. Go queue
up carbonated whispers of gin, held
above shrunken bellies and shrunken heads
who trust the TV – the ghosts once expelled
are back. Supply them supper of sweet breads:
envious sustenance you created
of flowers, kisses, compliments, secrets.
The final dinner (last breaths of dated
grandeurs) leads to the want that is deepest.
Here is a hunger you could not have known,
below the skin, driven into the bone.
Rebecca E. Davis is an award-winning writer, experienced editor, and established dance instructor/choreographer living and working along the Mississippi/Alabama gulf coast. She is currently working towards her Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing from Queens University of Charlotte, and recently received her Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of South Alabama.