maelynslavik

How do I explain

that doubled over laughter

none of us

can play volleyball but

all of us

can laugh

and s'mores

you asked me

what I was doing

I was doing

it all wrong

you said

yesterday i wore jean shorts and a white shirt with lemons on it. i forgot seven times that we aren’t going back today.

there are swans all around me 

but they are blind 

or i am invisible 

and i don't know which

I think I live for the silent and still —

The friends you made against your will.

The evening light,

The morning mist,

The impossible odds that you even exist.

They call it “the hood.”

We call it family.

They call it “ghetto.”

We call it culture.

It’s loud — but it’s home.

The ice cream truck rings at the same time every day.

Once upon a time you were the girl with too much passion. 

You tried your very hardest to be in love with the world,

and it made you beautiful. 

But you lost that person to love,