genevieve

(a requiem)

Artwork: Embroidery Series by Andrea Zanatelli (attributed)

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genevieve
genevieve
singular heart
sorrowful dreamer
weeps at her window

all the rivers now run slow
their stars wandering aimlessly 
below the salt of tears
soaks her linens
beneath hollowed fears

these wounds
her weary head
thickets of berry brambles
pierced and mixed with blood
drips down
her broken crown

bowed low and licking dust
hide in the dirt of the ground
in the clefts of the rocks
what you’ve built is naught

your thoughts deceived you
your mind now 
cannot conceive you
you’ve thrown it away
trampled its light and beauty
traded it for one night in the arms
of a belief that never came
for one that doesn’t know your name

genevieve  
genevieve 
who traded her heart 

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Dearest Luminous friends,

This piece was written in 2024 and has lived quietly with me ever since.

I am no longer the woman who wrote it—but she is still very much mine.

genevieve came from a place inside of me that survived her life by giving away her most precious gift. At that time, she didn’t know any other way.

I release her now without judgment. Only love. Only witnessing her with and inside the utmost truth and tenderness.

This is her requiem.

And, in its own way, her benediction.

I honor who I was.

I bless what she endured.

I kiss her.

And this is where we never return.

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