Every month, I'll be posting basically a creative writing dump of some of my favorite pieces of prose that I've written during that month. I haven't published any work of creative writing since high school and I want to start sharing more of it! This first edition consists of my favorites from this past year that encapsulate how I'm feeling as 2020 ends.
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“untitled”
two bookends are
about to fall off the shelf
in different directions.
and in between, there are
so many sentences
so many characters
so many plots
that go unfinished.
and sometimes,
most of the time,
i sit here scared
about the story that we’re in.
maybe it’s okay
if i can’t find the words
right now.
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“on sources”
(an arts journalism poem)
this is their story:
create a space,
devise a family,
give lonely hearts
your soul and spirit
and welcome them.
be a sanctuary,
respite from wrongs,
and help them feel that
their culture,
their story matters.
i tell their story:
listen intently,
hear their voices,
give unheard thoughts
chances to be spoken
and represent them.
be a vessel,
a platform for recognition,
and help them feel that
their culture,
their story matters.
because people like us,
we too often are silenced.
well, it’s our time to speak.
because our stories matter.
------
“float/fly”
i need to stop floating.
if i’m going to drown
or if i swim with all my might
and get to the top
and gasp for air,
i need to decide.
because life in limbo
isn’t life,
it’s on the edge,
and i do not know
if i can trust myself to sit on it
without falling.
so float,
swim,
drown,
or fly.
from the depths below
and the sky above
the distance between
uncertainty and love
my existence begins
when i acknowledge others exist.
i want to fly.
i want to live.