Poem - "Echo and Narcissus"

 

Echo and Narcissus

Wren Greyson

Photo by cottonbro studio, from Pexels

It is easy to get him to say I 

          searching, begging, grounded,

because I know he stands alone 
in a way I cannot.

He doesn’t get help from me
fishing out the letter
as he searches for his love. 

          Perfect, beautiful, give me more.

He reels on me
lashing, cornered
from my following.

Next, I receive a you. 

          Helpful, listening, good.

He’s firmly planted
while I drift to and fro
in the winds following the river.
My speech catches on the bed of grass,
spools around his neck. 
Maybe we need to sit back.

He won’t say it for me;
grow, speak with me.

I once spun directions better than this,
better stories than this world gives me,
better words than these captured fragments 
My reflected words catch him
better than my own ever could. 

His gaze drifts in the water
past my stopping place,
and his curved back tells me

I am leaving here alone. 

First published in 2025 by UNC Asheville's Headwaters