requiem
Tulsa, OK
2024, Senior, Poetry & Spoken Word
I love you like the earth—even when you are broken, battered, bruised.
I still love you like the earth—resilient even when tattered hands find solace upon your temple. You endure all that has been cast upon you, hazy mind, yet you give what you can. Sweet, dripping fruit even when the cold threatens to whisk you away, turn you to nothing—a sign of your love. Body aching, skin screaming, you weep silently like a child holding onto a hand that will never see life again. Dry skin brings conflagration upon your mind even your tears cannot extinguish it, naked you stand, ready to face it all. The monsters stand before you, watch you fall, dismiss you, abasing, step on you like a creaky floorboard not yet replaced, never fixed but they bemoan. If you are the old wavering house, then they stand to be the owners. Resolute, but to them, you have already served its purpose, you are nothing but a tool to them as long as they live. The tortured ballerina—prayers dance off your tongue like you were Tchaikovsky. Your prayers are not ignored, the masses now hear you. Training Cechetti, we see your bones twisting, straining, stretching. The pain you held within for so long, it all comes undone. The opaque window finally opens, spreading it to those who watched and stared. Apologies fall from your lips but no more, you tried to save us from yourself. Like a broken wine glass, consequences you stain apologetically. It was not you who tipped it; you cannot be at blame. Summer continues relinquishing its reign, taunting winter, whose rule began to wane. Hurricanes disparage our homes, could things ever be the same? Experiences you gave me, blocking off the amorous sea. They still meant nothing, if it weren’t you, I couldn’t see. I stand now, kneeling before you.
I will always love you like the earth—even when it hurts, I vow now to protect you, even with no hue.
Reflection
Reflection
Creating 'requiem' was difficult as it was one of the few poems I wrote from an emotional place inside of my heart. I was most inspired by metaphors for the Earth and using emotions and pain as a metaphor for climate change. I felt a deep sense of sadness in my heart while writing this, as I compared it and referenced it to many other emotional things I've had to witness in life. It hurts because everything I wrote was so raw and real from just my real feelings, I wrote most of it without thinking of a guideline or a rhyme, just purely me. I really want people to understand the pain that the Earth must feel from things like climate change, and how there are humans here that fuel the destruction of the Earth and just watch. I really urge you all to immerse yourself inside of the poem and (even if you don't like it) just think about the Earth in everything you do and think of any potential consequences that could occur. Join a club dedicated to being sustainable, participate in programs helping the environment, etc. :)