To Witness, To Behold
Something new, today! This is a poem that was directly inspired by a song, intentionally – I had the vague idea a little while ago for a collection of poems inspired by songs chosen by my partner, who is much more musically minded and knowledgeable than myself, and this is the first, inspired by ‘Sowing The Seeds Of Love’ by Tears For Fears.
I’ve embedded the song below in case you would like to listen to it while reading, but just to explain the process a little: this poem was written with this song in mind, while listening to it on repeat, so presumably, it’s some sort of poetic interpretation of the song. In practice, I have no idea how much that is going to come across and how specific or loose this poem or others might end up being, but I thought it was a cool concept, and I hope you enjoy reading these poems!
To Witness, To BeholdI am holding your hand, and it is burning–
it is growing, it is growing,
and we are watching, but our eyes are not wide.
We are sitting at the edge of an awaited supernova.
The wall overlooks the carpark, crumbling brick
splattered with bird shit. But we are between,
nestled, comfortable as pigeons, watching.
Perhaps it is the end of everything.
One earphone for you and one for me,
the phone face-down; on the case,
skeletons sway arm-in-arm, love-in-love.
What are you supposed to do, at the end?
Heat becomes liquid in the corners of my eyes,
but you do not brush it away; ours is tactile,
and its is visual, demanding, all-encompassing.
He is screaming, crooning, in each of our ears.
And the rest is silent–the rest is scared,
away, afraid–watching, not watching, but away–
and we are here, and our eyes are open, not wide.
We knew, and we came, and we accept.
If you enjoyed this, click here to check out some of my poetry collections – free ebooks available as well as print books on Amazon!
(You can also tip me on my Ko-Fi page if you’d like to support an author!)
