Yeah, Write #430
-you’ll Laugh
You Know.
by Shannon Barber
You know.
-you’ll laugh.
You want to call them faceless, nameless, formless even- it would be easier wouldn’t it? Everything would be better if you didn’t feel their name songs in your bones when you lay down to sleep, if you didn’t see their faces smile at you from darkened corners, if your skin didn’t remember the heat of their touch. Easy, you crave any ease and moments of illusory peace.
You know.
-you’ll laugh.
You watch everyone else. Their petty struggles and their ignorance of the name songs and weight of the dead that hangs on them make you smile when everything else is- as is. You hold your truth close, truth is your secret. Watch the rest of the fools dance and squirm. You tell yourself while your bones vibrate with name songs and your skin buzzes with ghosts, at least you know. Tonight you’ll laugh.
You know.
-you’ll laugh.
You know. You will take your complexities and one foot on the other side life because-
You know-
-you’ll laugh.
“Name songs” becomes so haunting each time I read it. Those two words together seem pleasant enough but not when they’re rattling in bones.
I liked figuring out this poem, this outsider POV. The idea of living and seeing what is haunted is cool. No one gets out of this life alive seems to be a theme, & I like the morbid tone.
This is very creepy and lyrical and otherworldly. I love it. It leaves me wanting so much more!