Amelia deGuzman

I wrote in those strange first few days
After. Time crystallized and fractured
And her absence poured in, slowly exploding.
It floated like smoke coating everything with
An ash of bone chalky white

I wrote it in that blank space
Those first few days after she died
It was easy to write –
Dates places people left behind.
What little life I tried to put into it
Was gratitude and irreverence:
I was writing to remind her
I was trying to make her laugh

About the author
Amelia deGuzman is a writer and spoken-word poetry performer, as well as a multimedia visual artist. After a decade-long gap in her education, she returned Mercer County Community College in the Spring of 2020, where she is a student of liberal arts, and the founder of Your Stories literary magazine. Her work has been published in MCCC’s The College Voice and featured with Trenton’s JKC Gallery.