Summer
Summer
the air tastes like honey and promise
sticky with the scent of blooming jasmine
and freshly cut grass that crunches beneath bare feet
the sky drips blue
stretching wider every afternoon
like it’s trying to hold all the sunlight before it slips away
windows thrown open wide
carry the hum of lawnmowers and distant laughter
and the slow steady rhythm of cicadas waking up
schoolbags lie forgotten by the door
crumpled papers and pens left behind like winter’s ghosts
the sidewalks burn hot enough to melt the soles of shoes
and the ice cream truck’s tinny song winds through the streets
a ribbon of sound tying the days together
less than a week now
before the world shifts
before mornings start with the taste of sunscreen
and evenings stretch out like lazy cats on porches
before the night sky fills with fireflies and whispered secrets
and the air holds the soft weight of something new
summer is breathing just beneath the surface
ready to burst open
The Voice
July 2025
Past the Stars
Find your footing on the ground Solid, like you know who you are Watch it soar through the sky Like a broken piece of the sun Shooting up past the stars Still locked in your mind Burning bright As ...
Summer
the air tastes like honey and promise sticky with the scent of blooming jasmine and freshly cut grass that crunches beneath bare feet the sky drips blue stretching wider every afternoon like it’s tryi...
I Fell in Love With a Pigeon
He flew into my life on a Tuesday. All feathers, no job. Smelled like breadcrumbs and bad decisions. He coo’d at me like I was the last French fry in a drive-thru bag. And I believed him. I believed t...
Quiet Expectations
They won’t teach me how to be a woman— But they’ll notice when I’m not. Say I should smile more, try harder, Be brighter, quieter, Less me, more what they forgot. They don’t speak of softness with str...
The Girl and the Sky
A little girl looked up to the sky “So big and far away, it’s like that, why? I don’t know why you are The way that you are But you have far shining stars And I’m but a trying cry.” The sky bent down...
Grapefruit Spindrift
There's a grapefruit Spindrift on the kitchen island where I’m sitting. The digital clock at the top of my Mac Book Air screen reads 9:16 p.m. The battery is 100% full, and so am I, ready to pour out ...
I Am Someone Who
I am someone who is waiting on a dock in the middle of the night. There is a gross, green electric light shining on me. There is something out in the waves. I am someone you pass in the hallways daily...
Dress
I'm wearing the same dress I wore last year, on an evening that felt like moonlight even though the sky was still a milky purple-blue by the time we left, arms linked, laughter spilling over each othe...
Camp
I’ve been going to a camp called Crow's Path since third grade. And even longer before that, but I can’t remember those days. People have come and gone, yes, that’s true, And some stay and some move o...
Life Plans
A single spark, a fleeting breath, This wild, precious life, defying death. I'll chase the sun on windswept shore, And seek the truths I can't ignore. I'll dance with shadows, embrace the light, And ...
Dandelion Fluff
Sam and Willa lay on their backs in the overgrown grass of his yard, her describing the shape of the clouds for him to paint as a picture in his head. “Ooh,” she says, taking his hand and raising it i...
Sequim
The bus to the Bellingham Amtrak Train Station was long and grueling; nothing short of a suffocation chamber for its passengers that day. Crowded, overlapping voices. The seats were packed: businessme...