“Sometimes I almost go hours without crying,
Then I feel if I don't, I'll go insane.
It can seem her whole life was her dying.
She tried so hard, then she tired of trying;
Now I'm tired, too, of trying to explain.
Sometimes I almost go hours without crying.
The anxiety, the rage, the denying;
Though I never blamed her for my pain,
It can seem her whole life was her dying.
And mine was struggling to save her; prying,
Conniving: it was the chemistry in her brain.
Sometimes I almost go hours without crying.
If I said she was easy, I'd be lying;
The lens between her and the world was stained:
It can seem her whole life was her dying.
But the fact, the fact, is stupefying:
Her absence tears at me like a chain.
Sometimes I almost go hours without crying.
It can seem her whole life was her dying.
- Villanelle for a Suicide's Mother”
― Villanelles
Then I feel if I don't, I'll go insane.
It can seem her whole life was her dying.
She tried so hard, then she tired of trying;
Now I'm tired, too, of trying to explain.
Sometimes I almost go hours without crying.
The anxiety, the rage, the denying;
Though I never blamed her for my pain,
It can seem her whole life was her dying.
And mine was struggling to save her; prying,
Conniving: it was the chemistry in her brain.
Sometimes I almost go hours without crying.
If I said she was easy, I'd be lying;
The lens between her and the world was stained:
It can seem her whole life was her dying.
But the fact, the fact, is stupefying:
Her absence tears at me like a chain.
Sometimes I almost go hours without crying.
It can seem her whole life was her dying.
- Villanelle for a Suicide's Mother”
― Villanelles
“The only comfort I found was in planning to disappear.”
― Your Blue Is Not My Blue: A Missing Person Memoir
― Your Blue Is Not My Blue: A Missing Person Memoir
“I'll never leave you," he said thousands and thousands of miles away.”
― Confessions of a Wallflower
― Confessions of a Wallflower
“Every word was a cheat. Every thought and feeling was false. I played the game. Everything I touched, I cheapened.”
― The Hope We Seek
― The Hope We Seek
Emjay’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Emjay’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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