May 18, 2009

Elizabeth's sestina

Background: This is the sestina that Elizabeth has been writing for the past week. I will warn you, though, it is morbid. Before you all tell me to take her to psychiatrist, please keep in mind that in the last month, she has experienced the following:
1. She has moved away from all the friends she has ever known.
2. Her great-grandmother, "Granny" Kloos, died recently. She and Jessi came with me when I visited Granny a few days before her death. Granny looked very different from the person she had seen a month earlier. She looked like she was close to death and didn't react much the whole time we were there. Two days before we started the trek to a new home/life, she attended Granny's funeral.
3. Charlotte is a guinea pig who died two years ago. When she died, we buried her in our garden in Grayslake, Illinois. She was very disappointed to know that we would not be bringing Charlotte's remains with us when we moved.
In summary, she has been dealing with a lot of loss and disappointment. She also chose words to use that can not help but create a morbid poem. Rest assured that if she continues talking about death and dying and grief six months from now, I might have her talk to a counselor, okay.

Charlotte’s Death

Our dear Charrlote was a gunea pig,
In our garden is where she lays.
We are very sad of her death.
Her sudden death left us in grief.
When we moved on, our hearts did weep.
Her death left us in sadness.

The rain washes away the sadness.
Her friend Sarah is also a gunea pig.
When we found Charrlote dead in her house, a long time we did weep.
We buried her in a garden near the front door, and that’s where she lays.
We do school to hide our grief,
We think Sarah grieves her death.

When I reach my death,
Our family will be encased in sadness.
They’ll do fun things to hide their grief,
But not like a gunea pig.
Charrlote’s in her grave, that’s where she lays.
When I am dead, my relatives will weep.

So when life is over, everyone will weep.
Death draws us to it, and we are drawn to death.
The dead man lays in his grave, that’s where he lays.
His reletives are clothed in sadness.
We are all like a gunea pig.
Everyone dies with grief.

In grief we die, in grief they die, everyone dies in grief.
In our life time, we will have to weep,
Even the gunea pig.
Everyone, everything, anything is doomed to death.
Everyone, everything is doomed to sadness.
In sadness we lay, in sadness they lay, in sadness everything lays!

Oh, she is dead, and there she lays!
Like all other people, we all die in grief.
And like all other people, we all die in sadness.
We weep when we die, like all other people we weep.
We fall into sadness, and into a trap, and the trap is death.
Pigs fall into the death trap, and so do every gunea pig.

In sadnness we live, in sadness we die, all around us sadness lays.
The gunea pig dies in grief.
In death we weep, and such a sweet sorrow is death.

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