STONES
STONES IN HER POCKET
Scott Carpenter was among the first astronauts
Virginia Woolf was among the brilliant suicides
The look on their faces is not all that different:
inscrutable smiles expectant eyes mischief about
the lips One explored the heavens +seas the other
words +rivers Scott died at 88 Virginia at 59
When Scott arrived in heaven he lifted Virginia from
the Ouse Why he had endured forces 16x that of gravity
& he knew a thing or 2 about freedom Scott did not believe
it was just another word Virginia wrote 9,626 words & knew
nothing about freedom Scott married 4x & had 8 kids Virginia
once & had none
The stones weighed heavy in her pocket on the day she had nothing
left to lose Now a lightness came over her Scott would teach her
how to fly
__
Virginia referred to her husband Leonard Woolf as “my Jew” & in her
final note before walking into the River Ouse she wrote: Dearest I feel
certain that I am going mad.
May 2014
