Because I could not shop for death
With apologies to Emily Dickinson

By Monica Eiland

Because I could not shop for Death,
It kindly shopped for me;
The ICU held just ourselves
And Immortality.

I’d had good genes, good self-care, too
And I had taken
all the latest drugs
To address my health conditions

I’d passed on trusts and wills
And powers of attorney;
I’d passed on medical proxies
I’d passed on all that they portended.

So when death found me, I was surprised
To see it work so slowly
Taking me away bit by bit
Like a poorly-handled move.

And when death had eaten all I was
And all that I had built
He finally shut the door
On all but bills, and ash, and bitterness.


Copyright 2007 Monica M. Eiland; In other words, feel free to send a link to your friends but please don't take my name off, represent this as your own, sell it, or otherwise publish it without asking permission.

If you want to see Emily Dickinson's original poem, from Part Four of "Time and Eternity", get thee to www.bartleby.com.

For those of you who know me as an (aspiring) writer of fiction, I'm pleased to announce that I have a new story out in the latest issue of Shimmer magazine, an attractive and relatively new small press science fiction and fantasy magazine:

http://www.shimmerzine.com/current-issue-autumn-2006/

The trippy lady on the cover is a representation, faithful in spirit if not in detail, of the main character of my story "Voices of the Gods."

The first line: “They say that when your wings are almost finished, the voices of the gods call you into the sky, and you become powerless to resist.”

Some reviews:

Sam Tomaino at SF Review says, "It was a totally enjoyable experience
and all the stories got a Very Good from me.... Shimmer is one of the
best small press magazines out there and you should all be subscribing
to it!...Voices of the Gods" by Monica Eiland is a fascinating tale of a woman who must choose a normal life or the option to have wings to fly."
http://www.sfrevu.com/php/Review-id.php?id=4762

Danny Adams at Tangent says: "Monica Eiland’s “Voices of the Gods” comes out of the Gabriel Garcia Marquez school of fantasy in that what is strange and wondrous to us, to the point of almost being surreal, is commonplace in the story’s world—and not always welcome..."
http://www.tangentonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=922&Itemid=261

Check it out at a science fiction book store or convention near you!