Response to "Cleopatra" by Meggie Royer
Read the Original First Here
I have witnessed the great void It has found me in my many nights alone and detached from The fingers and lips and curves I once knew and now only half remember as ecstasy and warmth Even then, after we untangled our pulsing bodies Straightening anything we could make straight I felt the shame of not feeling enough Halfhearted towards the lover that unknowingly gave everything All to someone who had nothing real to give A child that couldn’t muster up real care So now I sit with the great void, and it knows me too well I place all that I deem as precious around it, because that is as close to filling an abyss one can get By letting others near it, showing them that it exists, hoping they aren’t afraid to fall in But it swells and sometimes I think that it’s stretching So I lock my precious things away before they are swallowed forever Though I’m not so good at mending myself, it seems nobody else can find where to place the tourniquet My heart will mumble hackneyed motivations on these nights He will even quote Mark Antonius in an attempt to promote sanity “Consider how much more you often suffer from your anger and grief…” Grief is grief, I tell him, no matter how it breeds We cannot hide from what it so deeply rooted in our being, we cannot run from our own existence And if I’m mistaken, if you find a path that leads to a lesser pain Please take all of us hurting ones with you