Poetry

a girl's face with blurred blue over top and a background of blue waves

Imposter Syndrome

Away from home with imposter syndrome
Fading far from the plight of perfectionism
Taunted by the unexplored, not on any exec boards
Sometimes struggling to just get out of bed

My roommate wakes up and runs ten miles
While I have clothes heaped in piles
And a hundred unorganized files on my desktop
Too anxious to answer an email

In constant comparison and competition
I’m not motivated by grades or majors
Student governance or unpaid labor
But paranoid I need to fit in

silhouette of a figure in front of a blood-red clock

Cold-Blooded

But eternity feels like a never-ending room / that lengthens with every step forward

brown on tan drawing of spotted lantern fly

Lullaby in Lycorma

A corpse-clothed commute cross / A soul-sodden sidewalk

tombstone rising from a hot red and orange sunset

Incantation by the Witch of Hanoverton

“If you kill me,” she shouted, “I’ll return and bring ruin upon this town!” 

someone asleep in bed covered with deep pink coverlet

My Twin in the Pink Sheets

Was there ever a sign / in the slamming of doors...

torso of woman sitting with her legs underneath her, encircled by red ribbon on the floor

Rotten Girl, Grotesque Romance

My final breath belongs only to you / As darkness takes away the remaining light.

little boy holding stuffed penguins looking at a spaceship in a museum

Retirement Party

Discovery slid here on her belly
 

the upper back, shoulders, neck and hair of a brown-skinned person

To the Little Mixed Girl in the Back of the Classroom

You are not “too much” of one thing
and “not enough” of another.

dark amber background, wheat-colored straw-like spidery figures in foreground

Good Girl, Rotting Teeth

The trial never ceased, the heavy shackle tightens 

three little ghosts in white sheets on a stage with red curtains framing them

Ghosts of Fresno

One fateful day, on eve of May, an ancient stage they found