Welcome to Poetically Yours. Poetically Yours showcases poems from northern Illinois poets. This week’s poet is Auburn high school’s LIT UP group member, Effadea Rowe.
The LIT UP poetry group started as a sixth-grade project in 2015 by Lori Beach-Glass. LIT is short for the word literature. The students are in high school now, but they continue to plaster their words across the community. This group participates in an open mic at the Certified Open Mic and Poetry Slam at the Rockford Public Library Nordlof Center.
LIT UP visited WNIJ and performed on Facebook Live in April. During this visit, some of the students left lyrical gifts. This poem is by Rowe. It's called "SOLITARY CONFINEMENT."
Asking me questions that will only increase my frustration, how could I expect you to understand if you've never experienced this infestation?
Bugs crawling in my skin, how could this happen again?
For someone who's always distracted with distractions, When the air is left still and quite... My thoughts lead to many iterations. With nobody to illustrate my thoughts to, Footsteps are hollow and my voice quite but deep, Bones made of silk and snow, A dagger of loneliness inserted in my chest, The silence surrounding my breath. And when I find myself distancing and becoming the darkness, The hands that are there never go unnoticed. Attachment begins, assuming the same importance, But, of course, you're like everyone else Reminding me I'm unimportant... Reminding me of my place, the place I've always been, And just like that the voices are thinning, Empty calls me again, just when I thought I was winning. Muffled tones and words that don't really matter... An itchy feeling that never gets itched, You'll never understand how quiet it gets. Being a priority is certainly something special. When you spend your whole life clawing to become one... You'll understand the struggle.
