"What It Sounds Like ..."

 

Currently I am really into K-Pop Demon Hunters, and I would recommend it to pretty much everyone. I am likely to write more about it at some point, but for right now I decided to share a poem I wrote in response to the song "What It Sounds Like." You can also listen to this recording of me reading the poem at August's Three Avenues Open Mic.

8/22/25-8/30/25 (I worked on this poem over the course of several days) 

This poem is based on the song “What it sounds like.” from “K-Pop Demon Hunters” 

K-Pop Demon Hunters’ Song 

“What it sounds like” playing on repeat 

Calling me out, calling me in

What words have gone unspoken?

When did I forget that I’m not alone?

What patterns am I ashamed of?

Recently all too often I forget

How to struggle, How to survive, 

Let alone how to live, to thrive

Forgetting how to be “gentle, gentle” with myself

Forgetting how to be able to hold my reality together

With little more than fanfiction and daydreams

Or honestly, even remember why I should Want To “Want To” 

Hold this splintering multiverse called life, called living, together

When the shards of history, of time itself can cut me deep to my bone

Sometimes I want to return to starlight, to stardust

Longing for that which we all come from, all return to 

Seeking the sunless lands, hoping "To sleep, perchance to dream" 

Yet knowing life should not mirror a never ending time loop

Wanting a reason to seek new sunrises, new days, new tomorrows

Beyond my impossible wild hopes, impossible wild dreams

On the not good days, in the “here, here” moments 

It can feel like all I have left to cling to is imagining “What if?” 

What if I manifested a shattering of the fourth wall?

Surviving for the day The Tardis appears on my path

Surviving for the day Captain Cold is guided into my life

Surviving for the day Wentworth or Ncuti appears here at open mic

On the not good days, in the “here, here” moments 

It can feel like all I have left to cling to, is my intersections 

With my characters, with my parasocial support network 

There are worst things to keep surviving for, to use to cope 

Than clinging to wild dreams, wild imaginings, wild “What ifs”

But yet I wonder, is it always enough to survive for impossibles? 

So what words have gone unspoken?

The words that I am not always ok, that simply living life 

Adulting, being human, can feel like too much

So when did I forget that I’m not alone?

Forget that others know the color of the ink in my veins?

Forget that others know the vibrations of my atoms?

Why do I often forget that I have been claimed?

Claimed by the god and goddesses of storytelling? 

Marked as a believer in the magic of Three Avenues?

So what patterns am I ashamed of?

Patterns where I don’t give voice, don’t trust others 

With everything that is bubbling up inside myself

Inside of me are swirls, vortexes, and multiverses

Inside of me is the shadow, the night sky, the candle, the stars

Inside of me is every character, every fandom that keeps me alive

I seek to see this splintering multiverse called life

As it really is, as it might be, as it could be in daydreams

To be called out, to be called in, to sing a song of transformation

*Shouting in the quiet, "You're not alone"

We listened to the demons, we let them get between us

But none of us are out here on our own*

I’m not alone

You’re not alone

We’re not alone

*So we're not heroes, we're still survivors

The dreamers, the fighters, no lying, I'm tired*

*Fearless and undefined, this is what it sounds like*

Here I stand before you in all my imperfections

“We broke into a million pieces, and we can't go back

But now we're seeing all the beauty in the broken glass*

We need to be honest with ourselves, with the multiverse

*Why did we cover up the colors stuck inside our head?

Get up and let the jagged edges meet the light instead*

So now we stand hand in hand, dreaming, singing

*We're shattering the silence, we're rising, defiant

Shouting in the quiet, "You're not alone"*

The power of song, the power of words

The power of sharing what is deep inside ourselves

The power of shouting our truth, the truth

I’m not alone, You’re not alone, We’re not alone

*Get up and let the jagged edges meet the light*

Remembering *none of us are out here on our own*

*Up, Up, Up It’s our moment

Gonna be, Gonna be golden

Gonna be, Gonna be golden*

Bold text is taken directly from the songs “What it sounds like” and “Golden”