prompt: consider ‘trace elements’-- barely noticeable things and what they change. think butterfly effect! are their effects expected & small or disproportionate? is a ‘trace element’ an extra bit of DNA? is it some milk in a loaf of bread?
Absence [08/05/2024]
Something tiny.
Miniscule.
The lowest end of a bass line buried under the song.
That’s what you left in me.
Something big.
Groundbreaking.
Like how you can burn a whole forest down with a single match
If you light the right piece of grass.
I can feel it,
but I can’t claw it out.
It’s much too big
or much too small.
I see a trace of you wherever I go
Like a shadow or a ghost
Or an eyelash in my eye.
I try to claw it out and end up blind and bleeding
Something tiny.
Monumental.
Memories outside time and space
And passions I can't share with anyone else.
That’s what you left me with.
There’s a trace of you in my mirror.
I’m blessed, of course – I can still see you.
I’m cursed, I think – I can’t escape you.
A thousand or a million
Or ten tiny sparks
Adding up to us.
That’s what you left me with.
It made its way inside my skin,
It made its home inside my heart.
I can’t claw it out.
I can’t claw it out.
I end up dead and breathing.
thoughts about this week
Not sure if I have much to say. I wrote this fairly quickly, which I think is a bad habit – I'd benefit from more editing and pondering my writing instead of just spilling my guts and then changing some words. That's what I enjoy though, so I'm sticking with it for now, since it isn't professional work or anything like that. I don't love it, I actually rarely love my own poetry, but it's honest and what I have for this week.