The Same Southern Song

By Suchita Senthil Kumar

Spotify tells me you're listening to this song
and I know I shouldn’t, but I play it anyway.
The singer says he's lonely and he's lost
and I wonder if you feel the same way.
I can see your soul slipping into an abyss
but I can’t follow it, not until you go in first.
He says he's talking but nobody wants to listen
but I'm here, tasting your accent on my tongue.
He says life has been hard since childhood
and I realize how little of your memories I know.
As the singer says it's hard to smile these days,
the ghost of your grin from 2019 kisses my lips
and I'm smiling now, listening to this hip-hop beat;
the same southern song you're listening to.

Suchita Senthil Kumar is a writer creating chaos from Bangalore, India. Her work has been published in Live Wire India, Brave Voices Magazine and Hooligan Magazine among others. She was a student of UNICEF's Voices of Youth Mediathon '21. She makes life decisions asking herself one question: Will Sirius Black be proud?