Like alchemists we took copper pennies
coated them with chemicals and
held them in a flame
and we watched them turn to gold
and denied that it was ever anything but
the gold it appeared to be on the outside

Like children we took dirt and water
molded it into a short cylinder and
coated it with sticks and dry dirt
and we called it a mud pie
and denied that it was anything short of
delicious, like a real pie should be

Like necromancers we crawled to the headstone
chanted and burned candles and willed our
dead romance to rise from the grave
and we claimed it was working
and denied we had a past, that it ever
really died, like we wish it was.

And when the chemicals wore off
and we relized they were just pennies
and the rains came
and it was back to dirt and water
and the corpse fell back in the hole
and we quit playing God
and you went off to search, find meaning, really make something of what you had left
I was left to make pretend
just me, mud, candles,
and alchemy