Emma Poole

Emma Poole is not only an amazing poet/writer but she's also a singer and yoga teacher. She was able to experience our first Wall in Washington Heights from start to finish. Her uninhibited presence was vital to the experience of that Wall. We wanted to feature Emma because she continues to inspire us with her writing, voice, and desire to express herself daily. Below is a poem she wrote and performed in front of The Wall in Washington Heights. You can watch her full, unedited performance on our YouTube page www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8WE5xQFU2Y 

To follow more of her writing go to emma-poole.tumblr.com 
To follow her yoga practice go to www.emmapooleyoga.com

Polaroid of Emma from The Wall in Washington Heights

Atonement

I love to watch cream dissolve into coffee

Like milky white ribbons unfurling something beautiful

Three days before you broke up with me

I felt your body dissolve into mine

Looking down at you as we made love

I felt my insides unfurl

Except it wasn’t white ribbons

But salty tears that exploded from my eyes

You touched my body

Your withered hands like the underside of rose petals

They felt so good on my skin

I wanted to swallow you whole until my belly hurt

You were a food I didn’t know I liked

Until I bit in deeper and tasted all the layers

That made you who you are

An intersection of bitter and sweetness

That left me hungry for more

Sometimes it hurts to breathe

See, you’re still inside me like the prickly exterior of a peach pit

I wanted just the fruit but was left with the hardness

It burns sometimes when I look back

And try to put pieces together

The most abstract puzzle that will remain imcomplete

If we were words we’d be antonyms

But our hands created symphonies

Our mouths and our bodies and the way that we came together

Was the most beautiful synchronicity

Even if our music was dissonant

And I miss you

And I am mad at myself for giving my heart to someone

Who cannot feel his own beating inside of him

But see, I felt your rhythm

When I laid my head on your chest

Your body heat like one of those electric blankets

My father used to lay on us when we were kids

It warmed me in the best way

I varied your temperature and your temperament

And even if you refuse to acknowledge it

I know that your insides began to soften when enveloped in mine

Like the way butter melts on a hot frying pan

Because that is chemistry

If you don’t want to call it love

At least admit that it was science

You cannot burn something without fire and

My god, we were embers

Sometimes

When sweetening my coffee

I leave out the sugar because I want to

Taste the acid that still sits in my stomach at the thought of you not in my life

Did I mention that I love you?

If I had a cassette tape

I’d play those 3 words over and over for you to listen to

As you fall asleep at night

Your parents never told you enough

And I am mad at them too for hardening your skin

It’s exterior like a callous grown so thick over time

That it would take miracles to find the smoothness beneath it

When I began to soften you

You, too, dissolved

Like the cream in my coffee

Pretty soon it turns one color

And you would have never known it was there at all…