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Decrepit Downfall
Brittany Ogden
DETERIORATING
Your body grows frail,
memories fade away.
Your steadfast smile still remains.
Fragments of “the good ole days.”
DROWNING
Hunched in her wheelchair,
recognizable by her snow-white hair.
Shipwrecked memories.
Dementia patient lost at sea.
DECAYING
Ghost-owl emerging from the autumnal decay.
Expressions of macabre reality
silently crawl closer with streamlined precision.
Feathers flutter as the bird of death dives down and makes contact.
DYING
Sat beneath the old apple tree crooked and bent.
Camping with friends imaginary: crickets and serpent.
The dying of summer releases a crazed lament.
DISSECTING
Body lies prone, a digging site for curious minds.
The last flicker of life dissipates.
Archaeology of a last nerve.
Brittany Ogden’s journey with poetry began in the early days of self-quarantining as an act of self-care catharsis. Brittany uses poetic journaling to navigate vulnerable emotions culminating in an understanding of one's relationship to life and death.
Mikayla Faivre is from North Freedom, Wisconsin, and is majoring in Animal Science. She has always been enamored by storytelling and spends her spare time reading or writing. Mikayla is a recipient of the David Cole Award in Creative Writing. This is her second year as an editor for the Spirit Lake Review. Find her on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mikfaivre/