'Pinky-Swear' by Noëmi Merca at EKA Galerii, Tallinn

 

‘Ghostly light ahead of me in the darkness. A disembodied voice starts calling to reach the other side. An echo piercing *din/dong* and never fades. ‘—Is that you? I hear someone talking back. Or is it me? Have I begun to crack?’ ‘—Inhale.’ (eyes open). ‘— Exhale.’ (eyes closed). Heart break memories, I have stacks. ‘—So tell me, what do I lack?’ ‘—To only feel love in moments of hate?’ ‘—As I set fire to surroundings I had already instigate?’ Beyond the mirror, I see cracks. A sense of pressure with no more room. Read scars share stories of many attacks. And Echo roars back with a sonic boom. In this gradient white noise, Echo, i’m begging you to stay. ‘—Please remain and add to my voice when it begins to strain. Feel my every loss with you I gain. Mimic my heart and share the pain.’ I struggled when the torch was passed to me because I’ve never played this game. Worried, I outbid. ’—Tell me, what you think about that? Can you match me? Wit for wit and always come back?’ ‘—You have to wish and blow the fairy dust. Pinky-swear it, just for us.’ Together, we begin: ‘—Cross my heart and hope to die, stick a needle in my eye.’ No one knows but us to take our silence to the grave. And never speak a word. We kept our sacred unison oath. Because promises given with just words may not be so easily kept. Promises with a symbol are not as easily broken.’