Aren’t I casket pretty?
Lanai McAuley
Aren’t I casket pretty?
Painted with hues of rouge, lavender, and bronze
Center stage, main act, this is my final curtain call
Cushioned in this pine box of neglected dreams and never said apologies
You forget I’m a great Greek tragedy
Pretty people in their Sundays’ best
Gather around my overdue eternal rest
The choir sings of Jesus and heavenly glory
I’m all things divine and righteous
Holy conundrum, undisclosed non-believer
The pews praise in tongue and shout hallelu
Wasted youth, “Too young to die”
But how could they know
The grim reaper was a childhood friend of mine
My father always wore his heart on his sleeve
A newborn inked among gray hairs for eternity
The girl in the casket is a stranger to him
My mother prays for my deliverance to heaven’s gate
Unknowing that on my way
I read baby’s first bible
Cause I never knew my prophets
Pilate reads my eulogy with the grief of a mother’s loss
Her cracking voice swears, “And she was loved!”
The congregation calls me Sparrow
I don’t see the wings
An angel’s rite of passage, is this it for me?
I’m just waiting for the bells to ring
Lanai McAuley is a sophomore at Rutgers-New Brunswick. She is planning on studying History with a minor in English or Africana Studies. While writing had been one of her passions growing up, Lanai went through a massive writer’s block while battling the stressful workload of high school. Her creative zeal was re-ignited towards the end of high school due to the encouragement of a beloved teacher and fully relished in her first year of college.