Poetry

There’s a place I want to live

And someone I want to love

I want to live in a place

So full of joy

That it fills me too

So full of people

Confetti rains down  as flying squirrels fill the screen

You read your acceptance letter and I'm filled with overwhelming happiness

But I'm not ready

I wish I was underwater, my thoughts drowned out by silence.

The world above me muted.

The water cooling my skin.

Surrounded by that velvety liquid we call water.

That miracle.

Oh, how I wish I were underwater.

From childhood

we're taught the difference 

between heroes

and villains.

But maybe it 

just depends

on who's telling the story.

There’s a quiet beauty 
in the things you know won’t last,  
moments already fading  
even while you’re inside them. 

She will never stop moving
a sailboat restless at the mercy of great winds,
forever pulled by currents
no harbor can persuade to stay.

Dear Mr. Shabazz— 

I knew you were going to be my hero 
The moment my APUSH teacher scoffed at you 
And dismissed you as "violent." 

That's how I knew you were important. 

here i am,

foolishly trying to describe

the feeling of sitting up

high in an oak

and writing poetry.

here i am,

watching the sunset

above long green grass

and typing into an ugly

I am a poet. I take the words and I turn them on their heads until the juice runs out. It is red and sweet, like strawberries. I sit cross-legged on lilypads, watching meaning watercolor itself onto the pond. I rust like clockwork in the rain.

I'm sorry—

Sorry that I keep getting stuck in that well;

Sorry for always relying on your rope;

Sorry for putting all my guts on display;

Sorry for influencing you to decide like me;

I don’t know

If there is one thing

I can thank

For getting me through life

I can thank all the people who

Stood beside me

Once upon a time,

A woman won a lottery.

But she did not keep

The tens of thousands of dollars.

Where did they go, then?