TO A FRIEND DYING YOUNG

KD’s very first poem as written by Rapu’m. I was going to publish one of mine but he beat me to it. Have a read below and enjoy. As the name implies, it is kinda melancholic.

*

Today, I stand here

Watching you lying there

Still and silent like Debby’s doll

Eyes closed like you’re playing dead

But you’re not playing

Cos I know how it looks when you played dead

How your eyes would crinkle at the edges

Like rumpled paper

Your lips trembling with suppressed laughter

*

No, you’re not playing

This is for real

Is this for real?

*

Yesterday we were at UC’s Bar

Drinking Star from little cans

Cos that’s what you do at teenage parties—

Drink Star from little cans—

And you got a little drunk and a little bold

Threw the shyness into the cold night

And catcalled with the other guys

Intentionally got a little drunk

Cos you’d ask Debby out tonight

*

Today, they say you’re gone

Is this for real?

*

Remember how in Drama class

We used to stage these little plays

On makeshift stages

Where the hero dies and the audience cries

But in the end we all gathered to take a bow

Dead hero and all

And the audience clapped and cheered

Cos after all this is only a play?

*

Remember how one rainy night

We walked down to Kenny’s shop

And I told you you were loved beyond measure

And you laughed and said,

Go tell it to a girl? Come away, you said

We’ll hide under these shacks, it’s raining

And you crossed your arms around my shoulder

And it hurt because you didn’t know

Didn’t know how hard it’d been for me

*

But

Today you lie there and I stand here thinking, this is for real – is this for real?

Written by Rapu’m Kambili