Love Letter To A Ghost by Cedar Annenkovna
Medium: Colored pencil
Size: 12 x 9 inches
Love Letter To A Ghost (2024)
Self portrait, done and vibrant color.
Hoping to somehow reveal what lies under.
For beneath the surface is unknown to most.
From inside it appears the world is numb; souls, cold, eyes closed.
They pay no mind to the slow motion prison suicide.
Let this prayer reach you in time.
Please don’t allow your light to die.
May your persona continue to breathe life into a room
Rather than slowly dissipate into the gloom.
Of suppression, violence, repeat, violence, suppression,
Lack of sunlight, and constant malnutrition.
Apathy eventually replaces overwhelming sorrow.
Will I live to see you reach a brighter tomorrow?
Once more witness that sparkle in your eyes and feel your warmth permeate the darkness.
Bright, beautiful, and charismatic,
Please don’t lose your swagger, your fashion sense.
Style somewhere between gangster, gypsy and Jackie Onassis.
In a uniform now shackled up on a bluebird prison bus.
Still resounding three taps on of the gavel
“Criminal, aggravated armed robber “
Echo the words of the judge
“I hear by declare you despicable”
May society here on after only determine your worth by the mistake you have made
Lover of life, from you, I take decades.
Naïve little girl entered the belly of the beast.
Much as how you approach life.
Offering sunshine to pimps and predators alike.
You never picked up the “how to do prison handbook”
“dont accept chocolate.
Dont return glares with smiles.
Keep your head down at all times”
You rebel against all things serious and rigid
Dear Heart, I would send rescue now if I could.
But I am locked outside the gates.
Let compassion, Hope, laughter, joy, and light remain.
Return to the world unscathed, unscarred by your chains.
May those with Heart who enter a cage
Leave it not as an animal, but as a sage.
Wise and weathered, keeper of Brother, and
Every day, passing another piece of your soul.
Debts to society paid at such outrageous cost.
My tears fall in contemplation of loss.
As I sign and seal this love letter…
And send it off to a ghost.
Image description: A colorful self-portrait drawn in bright colors fading from purple and blue to red and orange, then green, next to which the artist has written a poem in the form of a love letter to themself and the things they want to remember about themself.