forever twenty-eight - Lucy Magrath

one day

you stopped existing

and you didn’t

your sudden absence

is a pervasive presence

a spinning zoetrope of memories

crashing my consciousness

disrupting my hard won equilibrium

your film reel

is running on repeat

the headlines

the highlights

the hiatus

I keep replaying

the deleted scenes

each faded negative

I set into the projector

gives you

one

more

moment

you’re the star

a supernova

I’m the projectionist

cranking the handle

responsible

for keeping you 

alive

fighting your

obstinate

insistence

on death

Originally published by littledeathlit, December 2020

The poem was also reproduced, in part, on the gravestone of the friend for whom it was written in 2022

Lucy Magrath is a poet who has previously been published in the former online journal littledeathlit as well the poetry collection Reaching for Mercy: Proost Poetry Collection and has collaborated with her sister Emily for poetry published in a poetry pamphlet produced by Beachcomber FX. Lucy is from London but is now based in Malmö, Sweden where she studied creative writing at Malmö University. She comes from a family of poets and can be found on X (@lucegiraffe) where she posts infrequently.