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See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poem This is What you Leave Me 4/24/16 at Chicago’s 2016 Poetry Bomb at Bagdad Cemetery in Leander Texas (filmed with a Canon Power Shot camera).

See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poem This is What you Leave Me 4/24/16 at Chicago’s 2016 Poetry Bomb at Bagdad Cemetery in Leander Texas (filmed with a Sony camera).

This is What You Leave Me 07/24/06 i stare at myself in the mirror at eleven fifteen at night and think of how you’re too good to die you’re the good one you’re not the one that’s supposed to be dying you’re supposed to be the strong one you’re supposed to be the one that’s supposed to hold us together that’s supposed to hold me together you’re the one i’m sobbing like a child now i can’t hold myself together now and you’re not supposed to do this to me how dare you i know people lose loved ones but this is too young for me i know i’m not the only one to go through this but you didn’t teach me anything about this nobody teaches anyone about this i hate the world for this and i stare at the mirror seeing myself sobbing like a child well well, you never saw me like this when i grew up anyway so i guess now is the time for firsts but i see myself in the mirror sobbing like a child for you and i think how silly of me i shouldn’t cry like this but i see myself in the mirror i’m an adult i know better and think that this reflection doesn’t look like you i look more like dad dark hair, dark eyes wrinkles from a furrowed brow and a hard life when you look at photos they say i look like you but right now in this mirror i look distraught not the way you are i see the pain in my face but it’s not your face it’s not your hurt it’s not your anger it’s not anything from you but this is what you leave me Copyright Janet Kuypers. All rights reserved. No material may be reprinted without express permission.