A Country Funeral (Madrigal) by David Harrison Horton

This day is extremely long.

The sun is setting by the hills.

Everyone says to stay strong.

At the wake, we have our fill:

Everything in place, nothing wrong.

Even winds won’t break the still.

To hold it in and yet look out,

while dead inside, replete with doubt

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David Harrison Horton is a Beijing-based writer, artist, editor and curator. He is author of the chapbooks Pete Hoffman Days (Pinball) and BeiHai (Nanjing Poetry). His poetry has recently appeared in In Parentheses, swifts & slows, Spittoon and Otoliths, among others.