I am a dog bearing its teeth and foaming at the mouth. I am a dog because I am scared. I am a dog because my leash is too tight and you’re too close. I am a dog because I don’t know how to unhinge my jaw after the first bite. I am a dog because I am scared. I am a dog because I don’t know how to be anything else. I am a dog because I can’t see through my fear and I don’t know who is helping me or wants to harm me. I am a dog because I am scared.
slow progress is still progress- that's what people keep telling me. i know there's truth in that, and i know they're just trying to help. so i bite my tongue behind gritted teeth and thank them as politely as i can.
but it's been years of work and very little to show for it, in the long run. it's embarrassing, holding up hands made of greenery among fields of glorious florals. look, i say. look. i've accomplished something, finally. but then someone laughs; silly girl. ivy isn't a flower, no matter how prettily it can bloom. didn't you know it's just another weed?
so i tug on the vines. rip them out of the soil, sending clumps of dirt flying in the process. i put in the work, but no matter how hard i try, i can't seem to make a dent. it's everywhere, and i'm drowning in it. and i feel so stupid for ever once thinking it could be beautiful. how could i not see the way it was strangling everything else? including me.
Join @nashira in her first writing workshop of the year on LIST POEMS! (this is my first time facilitating in 4 months 🥹💚 come write list poems with me?)
🎟️Tickets £1+
Attendance NOT required! Feel free to sign just for the materials!
i can't remember if it was a random text post, a screenshot of a poem, or a transcription of a poem, and i don't know if it was meant to be a shitpost or not.
it was a piece of short writing that was about the last moments of awareness of a snake(?), blissfully alive and alert, just before it smashes into a wire and dies instantly. presumably the entire thing was a metaphor for human life, or something. like i said, it might not have been serious at all. i don't think it was a viral post but it could have been, i don't remember the note count. it's been rattling around inside my skull for days and i can't find it again through google please help me
franz kafka, diaries of franz kafka // taylor swift, evermore // emily bronte, wuthering heights // ada limon, shelter: a love letter to trees // yusef komunyakaa, pleasure dome: new and collected poems // anne sexton, a self-portrait in letters // franz kafka, the blue octavo notebooks // robert frost, my november guest // albert camus, the plague // gbenga adeoba, a short essay on drowning // virginia woolf, the complete works // talin tahajian // e. m. forster, howards end // louise erdrich, the sentence // cynthia rylant, in november // virginia woolf, diaries // may sarton, recovering: a journal // franz kafka, diaries of franz kafka
Do you think Eve knew she was created for Adam? Do you believe that when she woke she found solace in her task to keep Adam entertained? Her very first breath was interrupted by His words “it is not good for man to be alone.” What does free will mean to Eve? What does temptation mean to Eve? What if Satan had whispered, “I created and designed this tree just for you. Come, let’s partake in its fruits together. It is not good for you to be alone.”
i want to be loveable. and not in the way that i want every single person who meets me to adore me- no. i want the people i love to find it easy to love me back. i want interesting strangers to find it easy to confide in me, to be vulnerable with me because i'm just so easy to trust. i want to be the distant friend you can tell anything to. the person a classmate might approach for help. i want to be easy to love, and want others to know that im full of love, and so willing to give it away.