"An Elegy For Life" by Rono Hem ('19)

Photo Credit: Bastian Sara

To climb out of a mother’s womb
And plant the bitter kiss of betrayal
To furtively compose a song for Dad
And cry echoes into a torn drum’s shell
To crawl one’s way into a city’s heart
And drink alone into the dead of night
To make love on top of clean sheets
And disappear before morning dew
To slip a tattered ring onto her finger
And bury her beneath Evergreen stars
To build a treehouse with green hands
And burn it down to a silhouette of ashes
To rest old bones in a rocking chair
And weep over tight-lipped children
To wonder at the edge of a mountain’s peak
And fall into infernal echoing abyss

To live
Or,

To not live