another

Submitted by Madeline on Wed, 05/24/2017 - 02:26

you hear
tragedy
the burnt awful taste of it
ripples across oceans
to your living room
you sink

it's hard to think
to believe
in such devastation

hard to relate
to it, almost
hard to correlate
to put yourself in that place
to feel the brevity
the tang
of hurt and pain

and it catches you
when you least expect
casually laughing
til you're enveloped in a swell
of it
in the echoes of those
who ache

and then laughter feels fake
and the laughter feels fake
and the laughter is fake
fake
fake

Author's age when written
19
Genre

Comments

MADELINE!!! This is a masterpiece. The first verse: I caught my breath. It felt so good in my mouth. And then the last bit. I read over it three times and was like "Yes, this is perfect." You are brilliant!

I don’t thrive off of chaos: chaos thrives off of me.

Maddie, I've often wanted to write a poem whenever there is a tragedy. I always feel so sick after hearing things like these. Thank you for writing this for me. It's fitting--and I love how current it is.
And yes, the first paragraph is very good.

"It is not the length of life, but the depth of life." Ralph Waldo Emerson

you all are so lovely! Yes, this is about Manchester...it was something that was so hard to digest, I just wanted to put words to how it feels when a tragedy like this happens, so I'm glad it appears that I was (maybe) successful. I really appreciate your kind words <3 you all are wonderful!

This is excellent! I never know how to articulate my thoughts after events like Manchester, but I think you've done it masterfully here.

"You were not meant to fit into a shallow box built by someone else." -J. Raymond

I'm so very grateful that you were able to capture this feeling... ugh, it's not a nice or pretty feeling but it's real and it's raw! Thank you for sharing!

"Here's looking at you, Kid"
---
Write On!