a thousand pinpricks of light
sunbeams dissolved in concentrated words and memories
gaps in teeth and blanks in speech
salty waves and flushed cheeks
your aura is the most beautiful

i've ever seen.

when you are young
your taste buds are
naïve and
the sweetest thing of all is
destruction.

as you age your tongue
grows wiser but
no matter how sour
revenge tastes now
it has saturated the roof of your mouth
and it stings your gums like
vinegar.

Sunburst passions
Put to a pen
The ink comes out
But the creativity stays in

Ideas like fireflies,
Die.
Drowning in the acid of
Reason and
Test scores and
Club minutes and
Alumni money and
The future.

But what good is my future if
I don’t want to be part of it?

Every morning 

My dad writes me a note on a napkin
He thinks I don’t read them

But every “have a good day!”

Is tucked away 

Into an old blue shoebox under my bed

Freshman year this boy wrote me a letter

With the words: why do you come to school looking like you just rolled out of bed?

I stored the words in my mind 

And the paper in a shoe box 

Now I wear dresses almost every day
And wake up 20 minutes earlier to do my makeup


I’ve been telling myself I’m over you 

But I pull your shoebox out of my closet

I cry over our photo strips and 

The origami flower you made me

When you didn’t have money for a real bouquet 

As I put the box back I tell myself

Maybe next time I’ll throw it away

The flower is crushed and soggy anyway.

Every time I buy a new pair of shoes 

I keep the box
It keeps my arms from aching too much

From the weight of all the things I hold on to.