They don't write stories about the third or fourth news segments -
The ones that sound too much like an obituary
The ones that make people too uncomfortable
They don't write legends about the talks inside the provinces
The man who died slow and unpigmented in his palm leaf hut
The women who trekked far and wide to bury him
They don't write fairy tales about the grandmother abandoned
On the streets, sleeping on a pile of carton boxes
They don't write poems about spirits that haunt too close to home
They don't write poems about these ghosts
About the two parents who died in different cities,
Leaving three teenage children and one toddler behind
About the widow whose shoes got broken while walking,
Trying to find someone to sign her husband's death certificate
About the child who arrived home to his mother wailing
Over the corpse of his father as the cop that killed him
Writes "DRUG ADDICT" over his head
About the carpenter who still weeps about his brother,
Wishing he had voted for another president who wouldn't have
Shot him dead
About the medical workers in full white-gear,
Laying on the ground after a night-long operation
To resurrect a sick boy into the hands of his mother
About a father consoling his daughter, telling her it'll be alright
After an explosion rocked their building from a hundred fifty miles away
About a child gunned down by police, beaten, then killed
After threatening them at gunpoint with his toy water gun
About a daughter asking her friends for donations
So she can bury her father when he died
About the parents who've locked themselves in for a month,
Praying that their disabled daughter doesn't catch their disease
Because no parent must outlive their child
And if she died, they would die with her
They don't write poems about ghosts too far from comfort
They don't write poems about ghosts who wish to live
But I will
I will
I will
You will not die at death
You will live on forever
When I write about you and keep you in my prayers,
You will live on, I promise
You will
You will
You will
Read more poems like this in my poetry collection "If I Can See You When I Pass Away." You can order it via https://aidanbernales.carrd.co or through my social media accounts: aidanreuel on IG and Facebook.
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poems inspired by folklore
Poetrythis is a collection of poems i made inspired by the tracks on folklore. i posted all of these on my poetry Instagram page @poemsbyaids. you can check it out there!
