DOWN TO EARTH

Mortality and death are subjects which greatly exercise poets and, with the notable exception of Browning's My Last Duchess, murder tends not to be the subject of many poems.When it is, it tends to be in the form of a melodramatic ballad.
This month's Guernsey Open Mic had "Earth" as its theme, but I decided not to write about the planet and instead focus on soil, mud and clay, and this short poem developed from that.

DIGGING

Earth appeals for earth conceals
sad, broken things.

Like shattered wings,
her pale white arms 
would cause alarms,
her fractured smile 
(save for my guile)
could get me caught,
to trial brought, 
a lesson taught,
a lifetime’s jail.

Earth, do not fail
to hide this ruined, little one
 
and what I’ve done.