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Writer's pictureBrenna Taitano

I Wonder: A Spoken Word Poem

Updated: Oct 10, 2022

I wonder what it would be like

To breathe.


Y’know?


Where my head isn’t lead and my chest isn’t a sponge absorbing

The shock of reality; where I turn off my music and say,

“I don’t want this, this is terrible.”

Yes, I’m well aware that it’s terrible and don’t remind me because

As soon as the music stops, when I hit the pause on the shows I watch

I sit in “silence” but my mind screams “LET ME OUT LET ME GO I AM INNOCENT LET ME GO” like the man on the news under false arrest, or worse,

Falsely killed.

I think about this everyday, not consciously realizing the way

My mind howls and neck throbs, cheeks convulsing so hard I’m sure

My friend can hear the drumbeat but they can’t and ask, “What’s wrong with you?” Instead of “How can I help you?”

The truth is, she/he/they can’t and never will unless they say, “I’m sorry for x” which is a

Sedative for this mind of mine that

Won’t shut up and says, “You suck,

You fail, that’s all, and you will never be

The girl that steals his heart, or is good enough to be this one’s friend,"

And everyone will give awards and say, "She never deserved it" behind the lips that smile, “Congratulations.”

I

Wonder what it’s like to turn off the radio, turn off the laptop and

Sit in peace.


I’ve felt it.


Once.


Falling asleep.


Peace is the hug I wish would never let go

And you see

I know there is rarely

Heaven on earth, except when

A person chooses to love.


Not even then; when love ends

All hell breaks loose

The devils are here, wreaking havoc on earth

Inside hearts of men, on the roads that once led to somewhere but now

All there are are burning bridges, hearts scooped out like cantaloupes

High on memory distortion. Or wrongful acts. Or both.


But once

Once I sat over there in a state of a panic and

Remembered all my wrongs, all the love songs I wrote

That fell on stopped ears and excuses and

In my remembering, the temperature dropped

The room moved, but I stopped

With no one to catch up with the way my heart raced and chased thoughts around and I remember thinking

“I am going to die.

This is it I am going to die it’s too late God I

Can’t take another heartbreak.

I am now forever afraid of closed doors, forcing them open but God,

What sins can I possibly commit in the name of love?


“God I’ve stared at her roses and wished they were mine.

Heck I helped him pick them out for her, I’ve served my time, but when I smiled he Frowned, the world turned upside down

Dumping all the love I had to give.

God, God, I sat there and listened and nodded and smiled and

The list of their dreams took a while but I was there. I paid attention.

I gave advice and hoped and if that isn’t what love is, I don’t know. What is love?”


I brought all this to God

I continued and said, “God, that day, the sky looked like a cheesecake.

And what, what could be more promising than a richly made, thickly laid dessert

In the sky at six in the morning?

God I bared my skin to them

I didn’t want to, but I did it and

Allowed them to do what they pleased because

God, I deserved to feel something. Why didn’t I feel something?

And if that isn’t what love is, allowing them to take what you don’t want them to take

In the name of love, in the name of feeling, God I don’t know what is.”


My mind raced; it continued to chase down my throat into my stomach and eat me from the inside, desperate fingers

Clawing through lining, crying, whining, “GOD IF EVERYONE LEAVES THEN WHAT, WHAT, AM I SUPPOSED TO DO? YOU SAID MY BEST IS ALL YOU NEED BUT I AM ALWAYS ALONE.”


And in my wonderings, an arm reached out

It grabbed me from the side and then I did realize

I was falling, my right hand digging into my left in desperate need of a friend.

And the arm held me—one arm, the strength of two

Squeezing me, reassuring me, waiting with me.


Peace is the arm that refuses to let go

And knows where you would be, what you would be, without it, even if you do not.

In the middle of disquiet rests the eye that watches, lovingly waits for

With

Me.

You.


Peace, joy, love.

Love is the arm that doesn’t let go

Even if I do not know if I want it with me or not.

The arm comes, does not ask what you’ve done, instead

It holds you.


When I fall in love, one day, when I love, I will look for nothing less, and only give the same in return.


God, take my soul. Hang it out to dry.

Let me scream, let me cry, let me wail

Let me know, let me trust

That You will prevail.

That a door that closes is locked for a reason and holds nothing to fear

Except what’s behind.

God, forgive the times I hurt when I thought I was loving and

Take away their hurt and fuse those scars with love.


God

Remind me that if

I am lost

You are not.

You are in, You are midst

Oh, despite, You are still good.

You are the arm that never lets go.


I wonder what it would be like if we all remembered that.


To view a live performance of this piece, visit https://youtu.be/p4IMIiA2it0.


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