Once upon an end in time
I’m sending messages to ghosts
With every ink ingrained letter pressed into paper
Which I burn like sage
Like New Year intentions
Like old photos of ex-lovers
I’m attempting to recover what perished over summer
I despise the way you’ve become chameleon like
Able to appear like anyone
So long as they tell you who they want you to be
Compromising your sovereignty for their misogyny
As thirteen year old hearts grow nostalgic
In twenty six year old bodies
Full of angst and still yearning
To leave this place
Missing memories of melodies like a verse of poetry
One single note for a moment
On mix tapes
For haunted human beings
I etch into paper
Letters
To try and procure an answer
While you seek religion in the graveyard
Last rites
For those who are already dead
You want a never ending to a happily ever after
But I’ve always liked the last lines of poetry
The coda of all our favorite songs
The fin at the end of a story
Last words and their finality
Echo across the night in a desert
Or vibrate through the valley
They hold you like tethers to the universe
And stay with you
Long after the stars have all dispersed.
Alise Versella is the author of Five Foot Voice, Onion Heart and A Few Wild Stanzas. She is a contributing author at Rebelle Society and resides as coffee enthusiast and dessert queen at the Jersey Shore.
