often i think that growing up
is just a series of little deaths
one after the other after the other
and that each day i uncurl from a new
cocoon of tangled sheets
and weepy eyes
to create myself anew
my skin the canvas, my sweat the paint
pheromones for color, tears for depth
i could glue together angel wings out
of fabric scraps & scribbled notes
with all the words i have not said for paste
and fly away on the same old twine
that held young icarus against the sky
before he plummeted & disappeared
so fateful & so young beneath
the sun’s uncaring, jaundiced eye
i am falling; my strings are wearing
& soon, so soon, too soon
i will have to find my own terrible bottom
to stand upon.
Grade: 9
Tenleytown
Washington, DC
I’m making my first foray into the writing of Kazuo Ishiguro, which I’m really enjoying. My longtime authorial loves, though, are J.R.R. Tolkien, Neon Yang, Maya Angelou, Alexandre Dumas, Frank Herbert, Jacqueline Woodson, and Karen Russell.
I wish that more people see how wonderful they are, how wonderful we all are. We have so much potential for kindness and goodness that we’re not using yet. And I wish too that more people awaken themselves to the crisis our planet is having. If we destroy her, we destroy ourselves. But I think we can be the generation that saves our world, if we act soon. There can be no other choice, I think.
Aurora Aksnes. She’s a wonderful musician from Norway. And Lucy Bellwood, who is an adventure-cartoonist and a very lovely human being.