by Livia Regen
Tell me why
Have those long, deep streets
Sometimes bright
But never light
To get through
The end quite far
In the distance
Turned into narrow lanes
And why
Have those constructions
With chairs and tables
Infinite corridors
Tall figures
And confusion
Turned into places
As limited
As our knowledge was back then
And I wonder
I wonder why
Most of all
I wonder why
As these places shrink
And we expand
Physically at least
The vastness of our souls
Gets compressed
Under the weight
Of
The world
Or what we make
of it ourselves
The cynical appendix
Does growing up mean throwing up
Because you’re either
Pregnant
Drunk
Or sick of
Greed, guilt, fame, shame, blame, hate, overflow, anxiety, looks, pain, gain – you can’t handle
My hand, yours
Your head in bed when you can’t sleep
because the world creeps into your thoughts
Ignorance, arrogance, blindness and preponderance
the suffix –ance
when taking a stance
means losing friends
Are you only yourself
when there’s little left
to lose
or give
or prove
Why
Livia read this poem at our fourth meeting on the 23rd of May 2017. It came into existence in May 2017 inspired by a conversation circling around the change of sizes and proportions as we grow up, merged with an expression of disappointment/anger with the world and its faces, letting a fragile voice speak. Definitely check out her writing blog.
Livia is a student of English and Environmental Sciences, a head in the clouds, the feet not yet rooted. Collecting words and combinations of words and using poetry as a way of encapsulating whole stories in a few words – serving as a memory aid.
