27 Comments
User's avatar
Alexis van Brussel's avatar

I'm crying for you, Crim. This brought me to tears with an aching loss I am all too familiar with. It is heavy and searing.

crim's avatar

thank you for reading alexis <3 DONT CRY

Alexis van Brussel's avatar

TOO LATE. YOU DID THIS 😭😭😭

river corelle's avatar

hauntingly beautiful.

crim's avatar

thank you <3

𝒓𝒂𝒊𝒏 ✧・゚'s avatar

your prose is as good as your poetry wow!! i love this so much i can feel every moment you describe

crim's avatar

thank you so much rain! i tried my very hardest

Ariadne Pautina's avatar

🖤🫂🖤

Amiraan's avatar

This was beautiful Crim. The sheer agony and pain is rupturing through in every line. Loved it ❤️

crim's avatar

thank you amiraan!

Siddhartha Mukherjee's avatar

This broke my heart.

The line "everyone else moved on, and I never got to see who I was supposed to become" is one of those sentences that lingers long after you've finished reading. Grief isn't always about losing a person; sometimes it's mourning the version of yourself that never got the chance to exist.

I hope tomorrow does arrive for you, one quiet sunrise at a time. Thank you for writing this with such honesty.

crim's avatar

thank you so much for reading siddhartha

i do wish too that tomorrow would arrive, it’s just odd to realize.

when you’re younger you almost fantasize about who you’ll be —

you imagine picking a career, a husband, starting a family and all those things

and then when tomorrow does come it doesn’t really look like that.

thank you for articulating the feeling that i was trying to get at <3

cooper devine's avatar

these new graphics you’re using are seriously fire

crim's avatar

THANK YOU I MADE IT WITH MY SISTER

Jasla💌's avatar

I loved this crim, even it is painful to read🤧🖤

crim's avatar

thank you jasla!

Stephanie C. Bell's avatar

Painful and poignant!

crim's avatar

thank you stephanie <3

Bentiwah Johnson's avatar

Ooo I loved this! I love your prose so much and your perception of memory is so interesting. The longing of imagined dreams that never happened and stay in your memory. Even after so much time has passed and it begins blurring the lines of reality. You capture that beautifully and in a very unique narrative that I think is so compelling!🤍

crim's avatar

thank you bentiwah! it was definitely a little bit outside of my comfort zone, so i'm glad you enjoyed it :)

Der Wanderer's avatar

Wow, this is a beautiful and eye opening poem, crim. I am amazed. There are a lot of parts that just sticks with me - though I don't grasp it fully but they are really thought provoking. "what do you call life

if it does not contain the living?" along with some more lines but this one is insanely curious as if we are challenging life to show us the path. I want to quote more such lines that stick with me but it will just make a reply so long.

You have a lot of talent and seriously this is one of the best pieces of writing I have read in a while. I am new to your substack but would really like to get to know you better.

Ps - just an idea, but have you considered publishing your poems as a book? I would surely love to but that book if you ever decide to :)

crim's avatar

thank you so much Der! making my poems into a book has always been something i've wanted to do, but i don't have enough poems yet unfortunately

hopefully in the future i can

Der Wanderer's avatar

Umm and can I restack this poem, you know talking abt the lines that stuck with me and how beautifully you have used words? ( I am no scholar but this is pretty interesting and I really want to make more sense out of what I really think about the ideas portrayed)

crim's avatar

ofc you can!

nostalgia and fresh ink's avatar

The way you write is so beautiful and I always read with awe. It inspires me. Never stop writing!!

nostalgia and fresh ink's avatar

Oh, Crim. This seared into my veins. So achingly beautiful and full of sorrow. Thank you for sharing this part of your heart with us. 😭 😭😭✨

Azure Jo Storm's avatar

"some part of me detests the way that i never stayed in the moment.

regret distorts the room when i return to it — guilt wallows within me.

it thins the walls of my heart —

can you see me

bleeding?

what do you call life

if it does not contain the living?" I love the time capsule feel of this piece. This singular moment was never supposed to become a core memory, just another day, but then turned into a point you will always ponder about. A permanent moment in time, written so well and so clearly.