In the second episode of The Ashlee Craft Show, I read the poem “part two” from my poetry book, “A Beautiful Question of Where & When”.
POEM:
part two
I left the space open
to write a good-bye letter to you
& the empty page stared back at me
gasping & lurching & trembling;
it was broken, it was cracked;
the paper swallowed me whole
I thought about the last time I saw you
how you were despondently numb & begging me
the bird sitting still in the cage
it once previously tried to escape from
& I thought about the tenderness :
radiantly gentle & ardent in its fierceness
& I thought about you;
you believed in me when I was just a shadow to myself
my hand was trembling
& the conviction inside me rose & sang
& I could not write anything
I could not say goodbye, unclasp your hand from my own
I could not leave behind, move on
from one I’d loved so authentically
it was the fifth of May –