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Reagan Myers, performing at Button Poetry Live, July 2017.
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Button Poetry is committed to developing a coherent and effective system of production, distribution, promotion and fundraising for spoken word and performance poetry.
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In my favorite memory of her We are sitting on rocks in a park in the Middle of the city The kind of middle where the cars are Rushing by and the dogs are barking and That Too is stillness talking to me about art Class And the music she is writing and into Being happy again I’m eating a salad and really actually Eating it for the first time in weeks Probably She says we will not leave the rocks Until it is gone Her hair is in a ponytail and it is so Strange for something about her to be Tied Up and contained she’s pulling apart Pine needles and telling me about the Definition of worth and in her Definition i fit it she’s not wearing Shoes and i think now About how her feet must have been Burning but She stayed there anyway and i finished The whole salad even though it takes an Hour and we should have been in school But everything around us is in full Bloom And she is smiling with all of her teeth Like a picture frame for her laughter She throws her head back when she thinks Like a cat arching its back to receive
The sun and in this memory I do not kill myself and neither does She I spend a lot of time thinking about What went wrong When she said i haven’t stopped crying Since i woke up or I can’t even picture tomorrow and Suddenly i am a child Small hands unable to help her the way She helped me i think about the empty Seat at her graduation The acceptance letters collecting dust And i’ve neglected these memories Put them at the bottom of a dresser Drawer underneath the clothes i bought Without her i think i am afraid that the Good memories will hurt too That i’ll think of the day she hugged me So hard she spilled coffee all over both Of us and feels something other than joy Just because someone you love has died Does not mean that someone you love Is gone it means instead of visiting the Tombstone you go to the park The cars are moving and the dogs are Barking and she’s still playing her Music it is just In my headphones now And i think that is the definition of Worth but she was so important to me That even her memory is the sweetest Friend I think maybe the definition of worth is
Being worth remembering Not the funeral or the eulogy or the Vigil but the bear hugs The coffee the sunshine that one day in May when she smiled with All of her teeth and i do too When i am telling the story of her the Day We both took our shoes off splashed into The fountain leaving the world For just a moment and this time When we come back we are together You
