Quiet isn’t consent
Quiet isn’t consent
i learned
life liberty
the pursuit of happiness
before i learned
how often a promise
can hesitate
no one mentioned
how often you’d have to prove
you deserved the words
i’ve learned on my own
there are places
where i soften my voice
where i let people assume
something easier about me
it works
and that makes me angry
in a quiet way
no one taught me that part
of the experiment
i don’t think the declaration lied
i think it promised too soon,
before it understood
how selective belief can be
equality sounds simple
until you ask
who gets to move through a room
unchallenged
liberty feels clean
until it depends
on who’s watching
happiness
is the strangest part
something you’re told to chase
but never slow down for
maybe the experiment isn’t failing
maybe it’s just honest
about what it still refuses
to give freely
i want to believe
those words were written
for breath
for bodies
for voices like mine
no one told me
they might not be.
The Voice
January 2026
Freedom
when i was thirteen i held a wrapper in my hand covered in red white and blue lettering a tribute to the land you once loved dearly but along with so many things you once loved it floated away with th...
It feels as though so much has changed and yet
The tides still ebb The sun still rises The trees still grow My curls are longer now. We have a new president new governors Different colors speckling made up maps Division. I sit with new people At l...
A brief, incomplete overview of being a girl
Being a girl is being afraid to like the color pink, because you don’t want people to think you’re a girly-girl. You're not. But as you get older you realize that pink is the color of sunsets, of love...
The East Wind
The East Wind is a rabbi in a darkened shul. He sits pored over the Torah scroll long into the night, his back bent like a cane. People come and go and come again, whispering prayers for the needy, th...
I Will Love You Forever
I went to work the day after they announced it. I stocked the shelves and listened to the radio from the speakers in the warehouse ceilings. Cars were piling up at the exits, trying to get out of town...
Chapter 19: Change
I have this "thing" about finishing chapters that sort of changes the experience of reading for me. I don't like to quit in the middle, or after the first page, even if it's a book I hate. I have to f...
Quiet isn’t consent
i learned life liberty the pursuit of happiness before i learned how often a promise can hesitate no one mentioned how often you’d have to prove you deserved the words i’ve learned on my own there are...
The Meaning of Life
So you want to talk about the meaning of life? There are many people telling you what your life should mean. More importantly what your time should be, because what is life except time and consciousne...
"Sligo River Blues"
The future was bleak for Martin Abarough. He sat in his vile apartment, emptily staring at the raindrops streak down the dirty window, listening to what he could of an NPR broadcast from his broken ra...
A Girl, 9:43 p.m.
She has just showered, and her hair hangs limp down her back, washed of the shampoo she waited five minutes, forehead against the cool tile wall, to rinse off. The sky is ink and charcoal, but then, i...
what once was
We lie tired Bundled up in puffers and scarves On the pleather seats of the bus that feels like home. You rummage through your red lunchbox, Unpacking each item carefully Announcing to everyone what’...
Consider the following
When I was in seventh grade, my teacher put on our desks a pop quiz, and question one was hard, but question five was harder (was the colonization of America inevitable?) and I stared at that question...