I Hold

Watercolor by Karen Winters


i hold


i hold

the sound of Dad’s voice on Thursday
morning, when it cracked, spilling the news

subsequent images like routinely-fingered photographs

i hold

distance like a shield, an empty room

each hard-shelled day to my ear, fleeting souvenirs

i hold

memory of your eyes, evidence
of an extraordinary thing, so alive

and oh, how they once held me

i hold

i keep holding
.

Yi-Ching Lin

Posted over on Y's Bits on "Healthy Doses"