Without You
written by: Daisy King
@stormsinteacups
Without you, pigeons would forget how to fly and sit in crowds on old monuments.
Without you, the world would be a poor rendering of the real, a virtual reality, a simulation.
Without you, I’d have a lot of space and the whole double bed to make room for emptiness.
Without you, someone would find concrete evidence disproving the existence of God
Without you, every road would lead to another road leading back to the start of one big road.
Without you, Gizmo would stop bothering to become a Gremlin.
Without you, all ventriloquists would develop persistent tardysknaisia.
Without you, the skeleton key only opens the doors behind which there are skeletons.
Without you, all storms in snowglobes would pass.
Without you, instruments would vibrate with the snapping of broken strings.
Without you, our room is just four walls and a ceiling.
Without you, publishing houses would stop printing books of poetry.
Without you, they’d always sell the same stickers.
Without you, every smartie would be red.
Without you, everything that is red will cause migraines in those who dare to look.
Without you, red roadsigns will pull passing cars into wreckage.
Without you, red paint would appear increasingly more like blood.
Without you, red images would fade out of Schindler’s List.
Without you, the concord would keep crashing over and over again.
Without you, the train would be either empty or packed full.
Without you, the train would always break down so I’d have to find coach rides home.
Without you, there would be a missing kid’s photo on every front page.
Without you, birthday celebration rituals will be extinct.
Without you, my favourite fictional hero suddenly dies.
Without you, I forget how to smile.
Without you, nothing is worth enough anymore.
Without you, I am still eternally one half of a split whole.
Without you, I stop giving out chances.
Without you, I stop believing in the kindness of strangers.
Without you, I stop playing on words.
Without you, I stop.
NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR:
Inspired by a beautiful poem by Adrian Henri that is also structured in the same way.
- Amends - November 11, 2020
- An Ode To Life’s Little Threats - August 24, 2020
- Guitar Chord, Hospital Ward - January 4, 2020
