Cement
by Marleigh Green
I wish I was more like memory foam
And less like cement
that when people touched me,
their imprints faded
But my voice is a melody sung too shrill
My body a bucket of paint without a lid.
My heart rests haphazardly in an open chest
see, how it beats?
when people dip their fingers in
they leave a mark,
the cement solidifies,
and their handprint stays forever.
some pause. to draw a heart.
others simply graze their fingers over Me
but others carve their name into My flesh,
where they burn forever
I wish I was more like memory foam.
I wish I could forget.
And less like cement
that when people touched me,
their imprints faded
But my voice is a melody sung too shrill
My body a bucket of paint without a lid.
My heart rests haphazardly in an open chest
see, how it beats?
when people dip their fingers in
they leave a mark,
the cement solidifies,
and their handprint stays forever.
some pause. to draw a heart.
others simply graze their fingers over Me
but others carve their name into My flesh,
where they burn forever
I wish I was more like memory foam.
I wish I could forget.
Marleigh Green is a 33-year-old pre-published poet and new adult fantasy author from Los Angeles, California who struggles with brevity. She graduated from Emerson College with an MFA in Popular Fiction Writing in Spring 2024. A longtime writer, she resides in her native city of Los Angeles, where she spends way too much time listening to Taylor Swift songs and reading smutty books. She is currently querying her debut novel, World Breaker.