Before Jumping Off the Bridge
                For Tyler Clementi, cyber bullied to his death

                "Jumping off the gw bridge sorry." Tyler's suicide note

I loved to play the violin, to hear
The notes before I felt them in my hands,
That process: a god of sunlight with all ends
Before beginnings, unbitten apple, air

Unsnaked and pure. When privacy was gone—
My life-in-life—it scoured out my soul.
I knew it wouldn't end, this kiss and tell
I didn't tell. Those arrows can't be seen,

Must be felt, the kind of drawn-out note
That rests inside the wellspring of your throat.
I don't pretend to understand what loves
The meanness that results in ruined lives.

It's the music I jump into, and the mouthing
Of love. You know, how a kiss dissolves to nothing.

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Copyright © 2012 Kim Bridgford All rights reserved
from Bully Pulpit
White Violet Press
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission