POETRY

Today I Can Write (The Saddest Lines)

An Elegy and a Tribute

Amy Jasek
3 min readMay 26, 2023

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film photograph by author

Today I can write the saddest lines
write, for example, “the sun is shining for the first time in weeks but I hardly notice it”

the night revolves on the other side of the world, silent
today it’s only the saddest lines

I loved her, and she loved me too
through days like this one I would talk and sing to her

and kiss her head even though she didn’t understand why
she loved me, I loved her too

how could one not have loved her deep sardonic eyes
today I can write the saddest lines

to think that I do not have her to pet
to feel that I have lost her

to hear the cheerful day that goes on cheerfully without her
and my verse falls flat like the light at noon

what does it matter that time could not keep her
the sun is warm and she is not laying in it, not here, on this earth

this is all. In the distance
someone is laughing. In the distance.

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