Woman drowned willingly,
horribly
in water so shallow she could have stood and breathed
her revulsion at the roaring shells, scarlet blood,
the muddy men.
she did not depend upon the stones in her pockets-
they were her friends, and no more,
chosen one by one on bank of silent river.

unhappy receptacle of indignities
lightly tied with fragile thread
thrown over one trembling shoulder

she saw the lighthouse in distant mind,
approached her beacon,
knelt, suffocated in the murk.

Woman, you left this story behind you
to be the companion of her sisters.