About the Column:

Poems of our Climate is a weekly poetry column run by Oliver Egger ’23. Egger also runs the literary group Route 9 whose magazine The Lavender was released earlier this month! READ IT ONLINE AT ROUTE9.ORG. This second issue is metamorphosis themed and is looking for poetry, prose, and art connected to moments of change. Submit your poetry at tinyurl.com/wespoetry. If you are interested in having your poem featured in this column, Poems of our Climate, please email your work directly to oegger@wesleyan.edu. 

 

REM Sleep

By Jalen Richardson ’25

 

Can you hear it?

When I’m alone serendipitous silence is always ephemeral

Why’s there so much violence entwined just in general?

My mind is an island: uncharted, perpetual

It’s relentless, can’t passover any thought since all my vices are visceral

 

Open it

My head’s filled with an empty space

Paint a picture

But then it’s gone with the wind; it’s been erased

So where’s my outlet?

I need to plug into my database

It’s not a waste

 

Even as I sit here and wither

I’ll deliver any thought that comes to my mind

For example: The crawl space is bigger

Cuz I put more problems in it like a safe in a bank

So cry me a river

 

And no I’m not bitter, but I’m also not better

Am I butter? Cuz I’m smooth sailing in saline 

And if the water’s choppy you know it’s because I’m the cutter

I’ll slice another/ sentence.

 

About the Poet: 

Hey, my name is Jalen Richardson ’25, and I enjoy using words in creative and meaningful ways. I also put Easter eggs in my writing, e.g. “Cuz I put more problems in it like a safe in a bank so cry me a river.” It is a vice of mine that I sometimes forgo clarity for rhyme schemes, but if the medium is measured through interpretation, perhaps I can’t be unclear anyway. Ironically, I don’t know much about poetry or poets. I just listen to music, as one does.