Category: Uncategorized
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High School Hauntings
They say the ghosts of two lovers tread the path around West Lake, hands held, roaming the barren land to sit in the park and wait and watch. The kids these days, though—they’ve got the story all wrong. They were never in love. Well, not the love you’re thinking of. They were friends. What am…
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Echoes of A Former Self
“Life is a runaway train you can’t wait to jump on”- Already Gone, Sugarland An echo of a former self/ beats back to me/ like a long lost love letter/ or a message floating in a bottle/ sent off to sea/ now returned. All those hours/ stretching Barbie doll arms/ into tight fitting dresses/ and…
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paralysis
I find myself in brief moments upended by ecstasyand I wait alonefor the other shoe to dropto shatter this happinessthat can’t possibly be my own. Feather-light promisesexhaled from hot breath are taken to benothing more than sweetnothings.Yet in the glow of your headlightsI see you arriving againback—like you promised.As I wait for your car to slowI…
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Maze Runner
grasped so tightly/ the skin of my hand has turned white/ to offer one brick/ russet red like those ones that built the wall we use to lean on after school//the tendons of my hand flex their last/ my bones tremble/the brick falls/scuffs my mary jane/ as it sinks through the languid air/ the echo…
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I Always Thought There Were Monsters Under My Bed
A toddler, cheek pressed to the carpet, sticks her head under the bed, and in blind optimism, knows no fear as she enters the monster’s lair. I wake in the middle of the night and in the haze of exhaustion I see the monster from my past, the one I use to check for every…
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Intuition
I tried to change/Closed my mouth more/Tried to be softer, prettier, less/Awake The thing is/ I know I know/ but I can’t know, know, because knowing hasn’t been granted to me. The thing is/I can’t know. I know even if I don’t know that I know. Knowing has been ripped from my soul/I lost the…
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In Tompkins Square Park Again
A man, older. A shaggy gray beard drags beneath his chin. A gaze like stolen time; his gaze, liquid beneath the rising sun, lingers; I can feel it. A girl, brown hair tied back. Waves escape to fall before her ear. Amidst the rising sun, she is softened, a pencil drawing yet to be hardened…
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The Greatest Escape
Swinging open that heavy steel door that spilled out onto the back parking lot and stepping onto the icy sidewalk, a small internal gasp always fought its way out. It was winter in Minnesota, and the near zero temperatures were enough to give any passerby a rousing slap—but it wasn’t just that. Exiting the movie…
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Annotations on “The Guest House” by Rumi
This being human1 is a guest house2. Every morning a new arrival3 A joy4, a depression5, a meanness6, Some momentary7 awareness comes8 As an unexpected visitor9 Welcome10 and entertain11 them all! Even if they’re a crowd12 of sorrows, Who violently sweep13 your house Empty of its furniture14, Still, treat each guest honorably15, He may be…
words by ava 