Poetry

I 

I sit 

I sit and 

I sit and think 

I sit and think and 

I sit and think and wonder 

I sit and think and wonder and 

I sit and think and wonder and worry 

today, i let my brother spray me with a hose 

and it reminded me of that time at camp,

when we jumped in the pool, still in our clothes 

it reminded me of water balloon fights, 

It holds me

keeps me at the right temperature as long as it's between 50-70 degrees outside.

It embraces me

I can be myself in it

I don't have to hide as much

i get

obsessed

with little things

movies

singers

people

anything

for two to six months

i cant

think

about

anything 

else

like being tangled

Don’t. 

Don’t you know? 

Don’t you know what I mean? 

Don’t you know what I mean when I say 

something isn’t right something isn’t right something isn’t right 

I — 

I could. 

I could, love. 

I could love you. 

I could love you if… 

I — 

I wanted. 

I wanted to. 

I wanted to, love. 

It's lying on its back 

on a large flat rock,

exposed to the grayish sky like an offering 

to some odd god.

There's a hole in its breast, 

When my teachers want to celebrate diversity they try to get us to write 'I am' and 'Where I'm From' poems. This is not something I oppose, but something is lost in the prompting. For them I write the easy apple cider explanations. For you?

It's hard being back

no, it's worse than hard

impossible

to be around them

to be surrounded by people who hate you for finding yourself

Dinner is silent again,

My dad was fired,

And my mom’s tired from working late again,

And I’m trying not to be sick from it all.
 

My sister’s talking about poverty

And how educators get the scraps,

2025-2026 challenge submission!

Favorite foods! What is it, and/or: how do you make it, where did you first taste it (if you can remember lol), and who/what/where does it remind you of?

could you just pretend for a second,

a minute, a moment, an ounce

of time that you feel the same as i do,

instead of running out the room

like Cerberus was on your heels

and i was death, herself.