Poetry
written in 2025
She wades in it
Sometimes she slowly descends
Like sweat down her brow
Like lips to a frown
But she battles it
She bathes in it.
A sigh as she practices
a pleasant smile in the mirror,
widens her eyes
breathes softly in then out,
in then out,
though he no longer breathes.
In the dark of her heart
she screams, claws, begs for him but only she can feel the
beat
beat
beat
inside her bones.
She clings to it,
cradles it like a sleeping child
that will soon wake
and wail and wail
and wail.
Afraid to fail,
afraid to fall,
Afraid of anything
at all that will
stir it.
as tears plummet down
and a salt leaks into lips
it will never be enough
to lure it out of her
deep inner pit, unlit
and unused
maybe it's better left
unabused and pristine
a memory of him,
precious as breath
and unseen.
Listen
an original composition inspired by the poem
Listen
a second adaptation of the poem
About the Songs
This piece elicits a lot of different emotions in me. I adapted this poem into two very different songs. Memory of Him focuses on the visceral experience of remembering my father as a child, and coupling that mentally with what I know of him as an adult. Tough is focused more on the emotional constitution required to navigate the complex layers of memory that build over the years.