To Beth

Poem

By Sarah Anderson

I heard your voice and let myself go

That this silence was enough to make me whole

Again. That despite everything, there was a way.

You, body in my lap, breathing.

In the air, can you see my letters?

The one I made out of your going

Even when I wanted to give up.

No, you said, by the sea, half-asleep.

So this time I left myself in the fire

& took your voice. The silent one

Which gave the sweetest hugs. The one

You gave me to continue—& I did.

Look what I made of us, our story

Like you told me to.

That if I turned this corpse into words

It will somehow become your song.

So I say, playing your piano, waiting

For a reply—

I guess dying early is another way

To stay young forever.

Little sister, little sister

Over there, can you read these words?

I swear I hear your piano playing

A youthful song of our forever.

­

Little sister

Little sister—

Comments from the artist

This poem is inspired by my favorite movie, Little Women, directed by Greta Gerwig. I cried several times throughout the movie, the hardest when Beth and Joe were sitting at the beach (sorry for potential spoilers!!) . I imagine being Joe here and wrote a poem to Beth, though as a person, I relate much more to Beth. I highly recommend reading the original book and watching the movie.

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Sarah Anderson is a secondary 4 student at Nanyang Girls High School. She has 2 older sisters whom she loves very much. This is her first attempt at publishing her poetry and she is terrified of putting her work into the world. She only did it because her sister told her to.