Weighted

My mother told me a story
Cautionary I think
About a small girl
Sound asleep on a bed
They were having a party
Someone threw a coat over her
Then someone else
then another and another and another
Making a coffin of cloth
Weighted and airless
At first her mother couldn’t find her
The image fixed in my mind
I see her encased in cloth
The sorrow of it heavy
Thrown over me
Like one of those coats