A poem from TWSS Issue 15. 

 

Collapsed will always mean something else to me now 

Collapsed buildings 

Collapsed plans 

Collapsed people 

Collapsed people strikes a cord 

A cord stronger than any word 

Any word that can describe how I am

Present but not really thinking or seeing 

These words themselves are empty, hollow shells

Soon they will collapse into themselves as well 

And become nothing more than something destroyed

Destroyed

Not a word I like to think 

Describes her there beside the sink 

Heart heavy, chest heaving, 

Praying in the lift that she is still breathing 

I cut my hair  

Because I saw her in the mirror every morning 

I cannot bear 

To remove the necklace I wore to her funeral 

Averting my stare 

From her bathroom floor 

I see her there 

I close the door 

Every memory tainted with the sight of her on the floor 

Nobody speaks to me about her anymore 

I don’t want to forget 

To forget her smile or our Laughter  

To forget how important she was to me

To forget the earthquake that shook 

Me to my core

Knocked me over and held me down

No plans for the future  

No way to say 

That I can’t bear to think about tomorrow 

Or a year from now 

Or a decade 

Without her here 

My plans have collapsed 

Like her 

Collapsed will always mean something else to me now 

Collapsed buildings 

Collapsed plans 

Collapsed people

Illustrations by Maegan Farrow.