if only everywhere had colored umbrellas in the 
sky. let's do this in our backyard-- will you change

the colors every month, or do we have to choose 
only one? that might not be a permanent commitment

i can make. I'd vote for pink, in case you wanted to know.
but you probably already knew that.

we could eat grilled cheeses everyday on the patio,
and ignore the fact that I'm lactose intolerant. 

I hope you enjoyed this piece! I know it was a super short one. It was inspired by a restaurant in Malibu called Malibu Café– if you’ve ever been there, you’d know they have an installation of umbrellas. They actually do switch the colors, but I’m not sure how often. You should go there if you’re ever in the area. It’s a little pricey, but really good…especially the grilled cheese. Please feel free to share feedback and/or writing challenges in the comments. Stay safe and healthy out there.

Brooke

when the movers showed up in the bulky, white truck
with the wheels that so badly needed to be oiled, I still

couldn't believe it. how fast time passes, how slow time
passes, how the boxes were already all packed up and 

making their way into the back of that truck. and no, I
wasn't having a change of heart. I was thrilled to see the

truck drive away, your car trailing after it, almost rolling
through the stop sign at the corner. but that doesn't mean

I wasn't shocked that the day finally came-- I guess I shouldn't
have been, as all days eventually do come. 

I hope you enjoyed this piece! It’s inspired by my grandma finally getting her own place and moving out from my family’s house after about 8 months of her living with us. It had been an extremely rough time since we didn’t exactly have the room for her and I have a rocky relationship with my grandma, but the light at the end of the tunnel is here. Feel free to leave feedback and/or writing challenges in the comments. Stay safe and healthy out there.

Brooke

There's a mask on my desk, two masks in the center console
of each of my parents' cars, a mask in my bag, a mask in 

my mother's purse. New accessories for new times, a band-aid
for the giant wound our world is suffering. Don't forget your

mask, my mom reminds me each time I leave the house. And 
I forget, a lot. Not because I don't think it's important to wear

it, but because how is this our reality? Six feet apart lines in 
stores, a growing death count on the news that never stops

flashing the 'Breaking News' banner because there's always
something new going wrong, schools and businesses shut

down. But there's more. Kids zooming down the street on
bikes and scooters, friendly strangers waiting to lend a hand.

If we have to do this, let's do this together. The slivers of good
will become rays of sun that eventually outshine the bad, and

we will win.

I hope you enjoyed this poem! I was trying to have a more optimistic spin on the craziness and second waves of COVID-19 going around right now. Please feel free to leave feedback and writing challenges in the comments. Stay healthy and safe out there.

Brooke

Nobody taught us how to feel, what to say--
we just did it, and we figured it out together.
You and me, always in it together. They don't
teach us how to fall in love, and they definitely

don't teach us how to fall out of it. If we had
learned to control our emotions, how to 
treat each other right, maybe everything would've
been different. But it's not, and trying to teach

ourselves these lessons is only a reminder that
we didn't know them in the first place. And it
was never love, but they didn't teach us that 
either. So we go along, now with the new 

knowledge we didn't have before, and we 
keep learning.

I hope you enjoyed this poem! It was another short one, but I’ve recently written a lot of longer poems for my writing workshop and it’s been fun to experiment with short poems again. Please feel free to leave feedback and writing challenges in the comments. Stay safe and healthy out there.

Brooke

i miss the clouds when they're not in front of the
sun. they make blue brighter, they bring excitement

to the tame California skies. everyone else thinks i'm
crazy for loving the rain; i guess that's why they live

in a sunny place and i want to leave it. please bring
the summer rain, the hot rain, the humidity-- anything

even though it is not winter. i want to feel it on my skin
before the seasons change again.

This is a super short poem, but I wanted to write something short and sweet about my feelings surrounding the current weather. I can appreciate the sun when I’m at the beach or swimming, but I honestly miss the cold weather. It stays hot for too long (in my opinion)! Please feel free to leave feedback or writing challenges in the comments. Stay safe and healthy out there.

Brooke

a flock of birds, blacker than the night
divebombing us as we walk. it's eighty degrees,

past eight o'clock, unusually warm as of late.
the crows always come back this time of year,

although i'm not sure where they disappear to
in those few months between the start of springtime

and now. i know, i know-- maybe i should just
do my research on bird migration patterns.

but i'm not fond of these birds, and how they
defecate on my mother's car so often. i only wish

to know how to make them leave for good. it's 
startling when they land right in front of my

window, and my rapping on the glass doesn't
faze them or set them off flying. maybe the crows

are just here to taunt me

I hope you enjoyed this piece! My neighborhood has a huge problem with crows around dusk about eight months of the year, and they love to poop on cars and windows during the day as well. It’s actually very odd, because the neighborhoods next to ours don’t even see them/have them come there. Please let me know if you have any feedback or writing challenges to share in the comments. Stay safe and healthy out there.

Brooke

a square we're all trapped in
prisoners and officers of our own jails

optional but it's for the best so we keep
ourselves two-dimensional in these little

black and grey boxes online and look
at the outside world from our windows with

light streaming in to remind us what we're 
missing. more boxes: we can't stop putting

ourself in boxes and finding more boxes
to put ourselves in.

I hope you enjoyed this quick little poem! It sums up my feelings about Zoom and missing in person interaction right now. My family has reverted to being extra cautious about leaving the house again now that California is having a second wave. Please feel free to share feedback and/or writing challenges in the comments! Stay safe and healthy out there.

Brooke

sun shining through the shutters, the world
smiles down on you today. the scent of bacon
and toast wafts up the stairs, but you only have
eyes for the big, gold box that's been in your

room untouched for weeks. open me! the sparkly
scarlet gift tag reads. and so you do, tearing the
paper off a box, the satisfying noise slicing 
through the humid air. to your disappointment, 

the box is empty. but the doorbell is ringing and 
you have to go answer it. could it be? the person
you've been missing for so many hours, so many
sleepless nights.... 

I hope you enjoyed this poem! It was definitely a cheesy one, but I tried to remove the cliché reunion ending, so that’s up to your interpretation. Please let me know if you have any feedback on this piece or any writing challenges you’d like me to try in the near future. Stay safe and healthy out there.

Brooke