You’ll always be there
by Livian Gomes, Loreto Mandeville Hall Toorak
Finalist, Years 9 – 10, performance poetry
When you left me.
I could not grieve. I could not mourn. I could not feel sorrow.
But I could resent. I could scream.
And I could cry and I could drown myself into a spiral of memories.
But as good as those memories may seem,
They’re cloaked by the fact that I cannot ever make new ones
because the person I want to make them with is gone.
I can never see them again, or hear them again, or watch them ever ever again.
And that makes me angry. Because who asked me if that’s what I wanted.
No one. No one asks if I want this.
I didn’t want you to leave.
Why did you leave. Why didn’t you say goodbye.
I want you to burn. I want you to hurt the same way I hurt.
Because I cannot handle you gone.
But you are not gone. Are you. You are there. You’ll always be there. You told me that.
Maybe I cannot grieve. I cannot mourn. I cannot feel sorrow.
But I can remember. And I can reminisce. And I can have peace.
Because you live on. You live in me. You live in the sand, the sky and the sun.
You’re not gone. You are there. You’ll always be there.
Want to read more poems? Explore the other Years 9 – 10 finalists.