in all my silence

Yasmine Abbey
UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine


Written in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, this poem focuses on the strange way in which old memories come flooding back to one's consciousness, especially amidst all this time and self-isolation.

It is important to read the poem from the bottom left ("in all my silence and freedom..the darkest parts of me") and work your way up. That is how I intended the poem to be read, but of course you can read it from top to bottom and perhaps the meaning may change (or it may not).


Will this ever be over
And will I ever be free?

the busyness of my mind
no longer a reprieve

spiriting forward

they lay palpable & grotesque
black & enshrouding

the memories
haunt me

scale the depths
of which I had submerged

In all my silence and freedom
the darkest parts of me