Scrapin' Melted Cheeze

Written to a dear friend we lost to suicide July 4, 2002.

Images burned into the back of my eyelids...
I miss you and the things we did.
I miss your orange hair & mine purple.
I miss standing in the center of a
Frozen puddle & feeling
Terrified AND triumphant!
I miss riding bikes and I miss
Lying under the giant claws
protruding from the ground.
I miss the art museum
And live music every night.
I miss Noel & Leon.
I miss the little dance your
arms did when you were happy.
I miss You finding things in Me
That no one else saw.
I miss record shoppin, thriftin'
And the Red Barn.
The library's not even
The same,
And everyone's stealin'
Our baby names...

© Heather Prudence Davis 2005

("Scrape, Scrape, Scrapin' Melted Cheeze...Say I Love You Later Please..." Kim Gordon, Sonic Youth)

Reviews

[Emcee Blood-stained Car..]

Creme Brulee is one of my favorite Sonic Youth songs, so you already get some bangin' scene points for that. I like how this poem is loaded with images that seem extracted from a singular life with it's own highly unique irretrievable experiences. This helps make it more than just another nostalgic poem, and helps the reader slink around in these memories with enough grace to feel like more than just a distant uninterested voyeur, even if s/he has never seen the Red Barn and doesn't know if those awesome giant claws are a metaphor or another secret site. It just helps remind us of our own. I've lost a lot of people and places as well, and the blackish humor of the last four lines seems to be angry at just the right thing. Many thumbs up to you.