Kolbe Riney
obol
In centuries past,
practice spoke
of sliding coins
over the tongue
of the dead
to pay the ferryman
safe passage
to the underworld.
For me,
I only ask
my body shrouded
by a marigold
kiss
over each eye,
picked
by your hand,
and for a strand
of your hair,
a dark
hieroglyph
etched
in the tomb
of my mouth,
for those
are the only treasures
I’d dare use
to trade
my way
across the lips
of the Styx.
About the writer:
Kolbe Riney is a queer poet and student based out of Tucson, Arizona. Her work appears in the West Trestle Review and Persona Magazine, and is forthcoming in Camas Magazine, the West Trade Review, and Panoplyzine.
Image: Diamond, Diamond, Shinin’, Shinin’ by Matthew Hindley (1974-). Oil on linen. 300 x 200 cm. 2011. By free license. Matthew Hindley graduated from the Michaelis School of Fine Art in Cape Town, South Africa, in 2002, where he was awarded the Michaelis Prize.
