POEM: Erasing You [Excerpt]

Erasing You

Erasing you is erasing beauty whole,

like struggling to lay down the most beautiful curve —

the elegant straight line,

finally drawn,

wrong.

Was it wrong, or were you — were you

the flaw inside the gesture, the rot beneath the gold,

the error in the hand,

not in the line?

You.

Erasing you is erasing Saturday,

my Persian rug unrolling red and gold across the floor —

six years of childhood sleep,

color and breath,

gone.

Every Sunday I colored inside its borders,

watched the TV flicker blue across the pomegranate dark —

I slept inside its weave,

before I knew

you.

Erasing you is erasing Omar’s wine cup,

the Giselle mid-turn, the pomegranate split and bleeding red —

cherries, laughter, truth,

the honest mouth,

gone.

(…)

Marni C. Fraser

May 15. 2026. 11:35am

Photo | “Leftovers” by Marni Fraser 2026