The Saddest Song in the World

Do a search: what’s the saddest song? 
Eric Clapton’s “Tears in Heaven,”
R.E.M.’s “Everybody Hurts,” Hank 
Williams’ “I’m So Lonesome I Could  
Cry.” Nick Drake isn’t high on any list
but the British singer/songwriter — a suicide,
1972 — left behind achingly beautiful little
tunes forged in hurt and melancholy,
and I have a friend who says she’s going to go home
and cry on the couch and she knows
she’s being dramatic  
but she is going to go home and cry on the couch,
and her dogs will circle her with dumb worry
and maybe they know some sad songs 
they can wail
and maybe they know those songs can  
break your thoughts   
like rain splattering beads of light 
on a shop window at night 
and who is that in the reflection
and where is she going
and what is she doing
and how can there be
how can there be
how can there be?
And maybe that’s the sound — the sound of 
car wheels slapping through the pools 
on the road leading out from town,
maybe that’s the saddest song in the world,
maybe that’s how we go on
and go down the embankment
and jump in the river
and never drown.

STEVEN REA

Steven Rea is the author of the archival photography books The Hollywood Book Club, Hollywood Café, and Hollywood Rides a Bike. He produces the website ridesabike.com. For many years he was the film critic at the Philadelphia Inquirer. His poems have appeared in The Paris Review, The Seneca Review, and other publications. A chapbook of twenty poems, Neither Can I, was published in late 2024. He lives in Belfast, Maine.