Marple

Marple

She's never a black sheep 

     or even white wolf:

born in a house on a hill

in Carnegie, atop coal shafts,

all her memories of Mama 

before her mind escaped:

     Why do you stand there 

     when I hit you? Run!

Once upon a time, Marple

and Mama spent the week

     in brother John's attic

after Mama broke her leg.

Coal hod makes her recall 

John regaling his cellar 

     of fellows in Dormont:

"Mama left Colette, her Collie, 

     alone so long she ate

     the family's Douay Bible."

Neither Marple nor John

remember, but as children

          they visited a facsimile

of catacombs, a bonny matrix 

     with skulls the size

          of bocce balls. 

[lyric]