'Love set you going like a fat gold watch.'
(Sylvia Plath, "Morning Song")
The watch sleeps coiled in the corner
of your room. In the hospital
whiteness, when you had sunk
and I could not warm the wreck
of your body, they asked if I wanted a lock
of your hair to keep. I said no,
hoping to send you whole
into the next world, not knowing they would pick
you apart, regardless, searching
for a black box.
That was the year the ladybirds came.
They arrived earlier in the spring –
while your head tilted
on the pillow to catch the birdsong –
thronging on the apple tree
between promises held in silky
blossom. Black and red glyphs
coupling.
When that was done, they vanished.
I never knew their young, imagined
mothers whispering into unhatched eggs – Fly
before they see you. Fly before they tie
the 'why' to your legs like lead
balloons. Fly before I forget
you are not for keeping.
Fly!
You have your place among the elements.
Text and photo by Junyi Chew
Oh my Goddess! Your poem just arrived in my heart with a soft damp punch, like bare knuckles hitting a sandbag. Exquisite, tragic...mesmerising. Thank you for sharing the contents of your glorious heart. Blessings dear friend. Nathalia
The most beautiful poem I have ever read . I am touched with deep sorrow, grace and your wisdom. You are a poet forged from experience, that has torn away surfaces to the truth, to the core.To see ladybirds is so wonderful, so magical. It is Gaia's children who have come to gather in memory of your little flower child.