What once was
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’s inside
Making us laugh,
Only to throw it away.
You open the window,
Allowing the cold to rush in,
Chilling our faces and turning our cheeks frosty pink.
We laugh as each baby carrot
And quarter of a sandwich,
Would tumble to the rushing road below.
We toss starburst wrappers behind the last seat,
Watching them pile up
And get neglected by the janitor.
Sweet elementary adrenaline
Felt like real rebellion.
The bus becomes a haven
A relic of childhood
A place of fun in the dark of dawn,
And in the golden light of an autumn afternoon.
In the dead of dusk
Today I yearn
Close my eyes and just pretend
That I once more
Will rest my head on my backpack
And borrow your headphones
Listening to music that only you like,
But it’s okay.
Because on the bus,
Nothing was wrong with the world.
Rumbling away from a childhood dream
Went bus 34.
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...