I’m Pro-Life, but in the Pro-Choice way. — This feels like the most vulnerable thing I have ever written. I am neck-deep in a community of family, friends, and church community who comfortably call women who get abortions irresponsible, baby-killing murderers. To say anything outside of that narrative is sort of social suicide. …

A poem for Valentine’s Day, in free verse I want only to love I want to love my Self. I want to love the sky. I want to love the man on the moon. I want to love the rain and the thunder and the song on the radio. I want to love the familiar sounds…

I reached the mountaintop and climbed back down — I’m afraid to be happy I’m afraid if I’m happy people won’t notice me I’m afraid if I’m happy I won’t have anything to write about I’m afraid if I’m happy I’m not being holy I’m afraid if I’m happy no one will have a reason to love me I’m afraid if I’m happy I’ll…

Notes from inside a flashback — I live in a glass ball It doesn’t shimmer or shine Everyone can see me from outside I see them too They wouldn’t even know it’s there Encompassing me Until I am still And the world is not Arms on clocks stretch around the whole day I, in the glass ball, remain Inside a continuum With a clock whose arms have been paralyzed Time moves along That is all it knows to do But it left me behind and now I cannot break through

I thought I’d hit rock bottom… I wasn’t even close. — I don’t think about the worst night of my life every day. I don’t even think about it regularly. Most days I live in a reality in which that night never existed. …

How my resentment turned into gratitude — The year I was 22 was easily the hardest year of my life. I hesitate to say it was the worst year, because it was also the year I took a fast track to life lessons, and got away from a lot of toxicity. It didn’t take long for me…

How one experience changed my policy of shutting up about it — I was telling a couple of my friends who happen to be male that someone we know peripherally had made me uncomfortable in a way he had touched me. It wasn’t sexual in nature per se, but it made me uncomfortable nonetheless. …

A poem in free verse — There was a study done on rats. Half of them were raised in a chaotic environment, and the other half, a nurturing one. When they reacted to a loud noise that made them scared, both groups ran back home — even the ones whose home was chaos. Maybe that’s why…

You’ve heard of Seasonal Affective Disorder. I have that. Except I don’t get it in the winter when it’s dark and cold. I get it in the summer. I thought I was something of an anomaly, but I looked it up and it turns out I’m not. It’s not as…