The static hums first
before the song, before the memory.
A needle on vinyl, a tape reel spinning,
a moment slipping between frames of film.
Rewind.
When silence wasn’t an answer,
when her voice wasn’t an echo
trapped in old voicemails,
when we danced in her kitchen
with flour on our fingertips
while she whistled a song she swore I knew.
Fast-forward.
The past flickers fast;
her hands tugging their way down my knotted hair,
the radio buzzing between stations,
her laughter burning through my ears.
Pause.
A breath. The lyric crackle,
but the song continues.
I press record on what’s left,
hold the melody in my throat.
It wavers, distorts,
just out of reach, but never gone.
Laavanya Rasiah ’27 was recognized with a 2025 Lamont Younger Poets Prize for this poem. The prize honors poems of exceptional promise written by preps and lowers, and commemorates the dedication of English Instructor Rex McGuinn to student poetry at Exeter.
