You Swim Until You Can't
for Scott Hutchinson,
lead singer, Frightened Rabbit
You swim until you can't
see land. So gone from shore
we become a foreign substance
in your eye you can neither rub
nor let alone.
Not meant for easy oblivion.
Not meant for that long slog
to eternity where you pledged
your forever presence to love
once everything's been worked out.
We hear no distress call, eye
no hand signaling how you'll go
missing from what some called
a messy life. Water sweeps away
even a trace of your footsteps.
© 2018 Maureen E. Doallas
____________________________________
Scott Hutchinson (b. November 20, 1981) died May 10, 2018. Just 36, he left his last words in a tweet: ". . . I'm away now. Thanks."
The poem's title and opening line are a variation on "Swim Until You Can't See Land" from the Glasgow band's album The Winter of Mixed Drinks (2010).
Read Marc Hogan's May 14, 2018, article at Pitchfork, "Why Losing Frightened Rabbit's Scott Hutchinson Hurts So Much". Also see "Frightened Rabbit's Scott Hutchinson Dead at 36", also at Pitchfork.
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1 comment:
So sad. Your poem pairs with this one:
Not Waving but Drowning
BY STEVIE SMITH
Nobody heard him, the dead man,
But still he lay moaning:
I was much further out than you thought
And not waving but drowning.
Poor chap, he always loved larking
And now he’s dead
It must have been too cold for him his heart gave way,
They said.
Oh, no no no, it was too cold always
(Still the dead one lay moaning)
I was much too far out all my life
And not waving but drowning.
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