Tribute – Joemario Umana
Photo Credit: Pexels Tribute for E. The day you chose to shut yourself off like a TV screen fading to black until all that’s left is deafening, cutting off the world’s voice as you watched from a muted distance, they wondered why their concerns, pressed into you, didn’t reach you— didn’t open you like a locked door. They questioned what they missed, like students unfolding their answer sheets to find every mark a mistake. They watched you lie still in that coffin, motionless, like the box that held you, and their thoughts wandered through every pain you must have tucked away, like the hem of the shirt you’re wearing now inside that casket. I am one of them, and I wonder if I still have the right to call myself your friend. I wonder why I was so blind—how I never noticed that even with all the light you gave, like a lantern in the night, you were burning out inside. We only see what we allow ourselves to, I think, because I can’t say you were hiding. That light must have been your call for help, but help only comes when the color turns dark. I recently read a line in a poem that compared the pale stain of a moth’s wing to blood on a murder weapon. Your light, now etched on me, leaves a guilt I cannot erase. Friend, I promise I won’t waste my tears— none of them will bring you back to life. I won’t ask how you are, because I know what your answer would be. I just hope that wherever you are now, you are held in warmth and light, […]
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