Danny will not go to bed without
his blue Mickey Mouse shoes which
he sometimes takes the liberty
of chewing.

Before Mickey Mouse, there was
a choo-choo train,
and before the train, there was
a blue toy poodle smelling of
old roses.

And before the poodle,
there was Ruth, the twin
with a free toothy grin, who
learnt to say "We"
before she knew "You".

On June 25th at 2 in the afternoon,
Ruth was returned
Dust to dust to dus to dus...

Danny goes to bed wearing
his Mickey Mouse shoes because
there are multiple ways
to remember
an unfinished

word

 

 

This is a Finalist of Cha's "The Other Side" Poetry Contest. Carissa Ma on "The Unfinished Word": Being a twin, "The Unfinished Word" was born of a morbid and formidable urge to reconstruct the intimate horror of losing a twin irrevocably. This poem is a personal project to see things from a profoundly unfamiliar perspective, to try and understand, to reiterate a young boy's subtle but candid reaction to irreparable loss. The process of writing "The Unfinished Word" was a continuous stripping down to lay bare the reality of a boy's humble struggle in the presence of a plangent absence. [Read Vinita Agrawal's commentary on "The Unfinished Word"] [Back to "The Other Side"]