Omega Lady

She scrawled an omega across her brow
and vowed to give it meaning,
then walked until she met the dog
that haunts the sea of seeming.

"A day ago I took some lampblack
Placed this letter on my face.
Can you guess its silver essence
Give it time or give it place?"

It answered, "No one here can know
before they've known decaying."
"Here tongues cannot convey their sense
all words are braying"
-
She pressed her toes an hour's trot
away from the salt and sail.
She happened on some eager children
eating from a patch of snails.

"A day ago I took some lampblack
Placed this letter on my face.
Can you guess its silver essence
Give it time or give it place?"

They answered, "No one here can know
before they've known decaying
Here tongues cannot convey their sense
all words are braying"
-
She wandered to a wooden church
and opened both its doors;
Inside before a silver monstrance
a man of cloth crept on his fours.

"A day ago I took some lampblack
Placed this letter on my face.
Can you guess its silver essence
Give it time or give it place?"

He answered, "No one here can know
before they've known decaying
Here tongues cannot convey their sense
all words are braying"
-
She ran until she saw a mound
with stones propped at its crest.
And realized now how weak she'd grown
as she fell upon her breast.

"A day ago I took some lampblack
Placed this letter on my face.
"I do not think it has an essence
nor a time and not a place."

"Let nothing answer, nothing come
and nothing speak again."
She spoke, too stiff to feel the rain
that washed the lampblack from her skin.