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a life so small – A poem inspired by A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara


How much can one achieve 
in a little life? 
a life so small 
How do you go about the day 
always getting in your own way? 
Clinging to skyscrapers tall 
Your friends are there 
yet you don't know why they care 
Jumping from fire escapes 
you're so used to the fall 
The bruises, broken bones, bleeding 
you think they don't see 
when you've held the shining thing 
to your torn-up skin 
a certain kind of dependency 
You let yourself shiver 
in spite of the arms that long 
to cradle you
Cry yourself a river 
until your hollow spaces 
leave no traces 

Forlorn jungle eyes gaze at portraits 
that, despite their beauty, 
bring you shame 
soothes and destroys
just like your name 
because you were baptised 
in the kind of water 
that doesn't cleanse 
but drowns 
What colours do you use to paint 
a lost cause 
who's also a patron saint? 

How much can you fit into 
a little life? 
a life so small 
That it encompasses other lives 
lives that would come apart 
if that little life cut itself short 
how many skyscrapers 
can you climb 
before your limbs decay
and give way 
to the inevitable fall 







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