maelynslavik

1. Smile. Teachers like kids who smile, especially during classes when mind-numbingly boring concepts itch their way into your brain and eat away the inside. Yes, you don't like school. No, you can't say that. Smile, smile, smile.

Sickly sweet,

Your words touch my prefrontal cortex

Like soft burning snow.

Your touch tastes sweeter

Than ice cream

On a humid sun-streaked day.

You,

Frost-borne by the north wind,

Author Bio: I wrote "Take Me Away," when I felt swamped with a growing list of things to do. It made me miss the days, in the pandemic when I’d run around the backyard, screaming “I’m bored!”

I hold my secrets in the shape of stars,

constellation-clustered candy like flaming balls of gas.

Sometimes they have five points.

Sometimes six.

Always, they burn

in that space inside your head

I went to the LGBTQ+ youth center for the first time.

For a year 

I stared at the website, 

wanting nothing more than to go.

When I finally went, on a Wednesday,

always carry your keys between your middle and ring finger 

never have your wallet visible 

don't listen to music in public 

everyone's a stranger 

you're our child; don't scare us.