Through the Wall
An elegy for the night certainty thinned
Kids believe protection is certain - until they grasp uncertainty through the wall.
We mourn the loss of innocence.
***
Poem
***
His footsteps--
Synchronized. Sure. Steady.
His features-
Stoic.
He never shifted from me.
He fixed things that fell apart.
The radio. The TV. The fridge.
He always came in time to--
Fix me.
The lights were always on.
I was always on.
***
Then, at night.
In bed.
The lights flickered--
Off.
Room. Went. Dark.
The fans--
Still.
The TV-
Gone.
The room-
Dark.
I turned.
Frantic.
He-
Gone.
Gone.
***
Fan blade.
One--
Chipped.
The knob on the radio--
Loose.
The room is cold.
The walls--
Thin.
And he?
Voices.
Through the thin walls.
The low ceiling.
"I thought I had fixed it."
***
I cry.
Soulful sobs.
That do not
Soften.
The lights--
No fault.
The fans--
Still wired.
Electricity--
Still on.
But I grieve--
He whom I thought--
Could shield.
***
Original poem by Michelle Liew Tsui-Lin. AI tags are coincidental.
Mirrors of the Mind by Michelle Liew is a collection of psychological and supernatural short stories that explore the quiet unease beneath ordinary moments. These are not tales of spectacle, but of subtle fracture — where memory distorts, silence speaks, and the self is not always singular. In these stories, what is unseen often carries the greatest weight, and what lingers is not what is shown, but what is felt.
About the Creator
Michelle Liew Tsui-Lin
Hi, i am an English Language teacher cum freelance writer with a taste for pets, prose and poetry. When I'm not writing my heart out, I'm playing with my three dogs, Zorra, Cloudy and Snowball.
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