Portrait After Breath
BREW Poetry Award Nominee - Tertiary Category / by The Contributing Writer / 543 views
- Listing ID: 35904
- Poetry Author's Name: Yveve
- Name of Educational Institution: Aklan Catholic College
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Poem:
I cinched his cincture as though fastening the hour
that undid me.
Embroidered buttons like sutures holding the wound
through the silence
until his chest looked like it could rise again.
He lay there, a peeled moon,
I did not cry,
it was too sacred for leaking.
I hadn't felt such forlorn vehemence.
The crumbling cardinal roses were not mine.
I sliced their heads with precision,
ground their petals into pulp
for a mouth that would say “Ma” again.
The pigment turned bruised, maybe rotten—
a color the dead might wear to a wedding.
I pressed into his lips
so he would not meet Him pale.
His hair, wild and asymmetrical—
I cut it evenly, like birds flying out of rhythm.
He hated that,
but I needed something to hang closely,
a little strand to keep my moldering walls warm.
The Bible stayed open,
its words like drowned moth in my throat—
stuck and lifeless.
What language does a mother speak
when the son has gone
where the ears cannot follow?
Cornelius,
a name like a soil turned into blessed fields
he called “unfinished poems.”
His locket rested against my clavicle,
cold as the hands I used to wipe his face.
And my bony fingers forget how to cradle
what no longer warms.
This isn't how sons return to mothers.
Still, I sat beside him,
and William draped him onto me
like a cloak stitched from the skin of my own ribs. - Poet's Bio: Yvette Prado Rejuso, 21, is a Filipino author passionately crafting captivating works across pure fiction, nature, the eerie, and romance. Currently pursuing BSED English at Aklan Catholic College, she's driven by memorable experiences and consistent dedication. Yvette diligently pursues her literary aspirations, including daily poetic expression of profound ideas.
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