Breathe.

no restart

Liam Widdup

regret on a night like this; i wish i was worth something to you or them

Liam Widdup

broken

Liam Widdup

blood-soaked letters

Liam Widdup

tick

Liam Widdup

person-shaped holes

Liam Widdup

radioactive people

Liam Widdup

after the fact

Liam Widdup

lilies

Liam Widdup

stardust

Liam Widdup

just kind of weird

Liam Widdup

Excerpt from “Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude”

Ross Gay

rotten

Liam Widdup

airless lungs

Liam Widdup

too much to bear

Liam Widdup

Date: December 5, 2023

Grieving The Living

You know the feeling;

The bitter winter wind howls

It growls at trees and cars and just

With each gust it tears your skin

Below the din your pain unheard.

You know the feeling;

The wind blows through your soul

And here your role is made clear.

All that you fear is broken on the wheel

of winter’s real and horrid whip.

You know the feeling;

Of frozen winds blowing through you,

Your fingers blue, your breath stolen

by cold again; You take in air,

Your lungs laid bare, agony a scale of ten.

You know the feeling;

Of silent screams made for oxygen.

Yet again I speak of breathing,

Your body needing despite taking

It’s fill; making you drown despite air

Finding fully fair passage inside.

I know the feeling;

Of drowning despite having ample supply

Of what I cry for. “Air, I plead

It is air I need”, like a man begging water

Completely unbothered, sitting in a lake.

I know the feeling;

Of feeling like I cannot breathe.

I still seethe on old past pains

A cyst that never drains, I drown in winter air, I splinter from what is real.

I know the feeling;

Of missing what you’ve had

Though it is my bad I’ve lost my heart

This art I hope can show you’ve left me