My darling, we have expected too much
from the universe. Here we sit, enjoying

its offering on this mountain, watching 
the sky turn cotton-candy colors. If only

we could bite the clouds, lips rimmed 
with candied sugar. We are ready to fly,

but we won't jump. There is always 
the possibility that we could float before

we fall. If only we had more company up
here. If only we had a lot of things---

think about how different it could all be.
Dream up different ways we can rise

into the sky and finally touch those clouds.
Will it be balloons tied to our wrists?

I have always wanted a hot air balloon to
carry me away into the sunset.

We can migrate with the birds and forget
every bad thing that's ever happened.

I hope you enjoyed this piece! Finals are about to hit (my school is on the quarter system this year because of COVID-19) and I’m a little nervous, so writing this was therapeutic. I hope you all had a lovely weekend and are doing well. Hopefully my next quarter will be lighter (and my internship will be ending… Election Day is so close!!) so I can get some bonus content out to you guys. Please feel free to leave feedback or writing challenges in the comments. Stay safe and healthy out there.

Brooke

The air is bitter with the change of seasons,
finally biting at our patches of exposed skin.

The grey skies suggest one must bundle up in
layers, but it never snows and hardly
ever rains here, so we won't. Long walks 
are meant for thinking, particularly in the cold
when it isn't so pleasant to go on walks anymore.

There is a purpose for everything in these times
of not wanting to go outside, and it is easier
to bear the cold with others. It is no longer easier
when that company invades your thoughts,
attempting to influence your beliefs as if 
they are territory to be conquered. 

I am not looking for debates, but a chance
to speak and for someone to understand.

Maybe that is too much to ask from someone
who believes that I talk too much and
am already understood by most, even if she
doesn't try to listen. It is my fault for asking

for too much. After all, you do ask for
disagreements when you speak, and you 
ask for confusion when you hope people
will understand the grounds you're speaking on.

They are just silent sometimes, that's all.

I hope you enjoyed this piece! It was inspired by the walks I go on with my family– it finally got a little chilly last week and I was so excited. When I go on a walk, I take an hour or so out of my day in the hopes that it will clear my mind. Sometimes, I just want someone to listen to me, and as you may gather, that doesn’t always work out. It happens to all of us! I’m aware this poem could possibly come off as whiny, but I don’t intend for it to come across that way.

Please feel free to leave feedback and writing challenges in the comments! Stay safe and healthy out there.

Brooke

Imagine us, unable to scribble out our mistakes
quietly living on old crinkled pages, 
with the choice to erase or forcibly remember
all that we previously could coat in ink 
and forget.

The blunt tips of charcoal and pencil lead
smudged beneath our oily fingers 
would have to do,
no mediums of the black and blue variety
at our fingertips anymore.

You would go into hiding, unable to face
the temporary permanence 
and all the other oxymorons in this world
we used to ignore.

In this world, we'll fade into the background
no matter what words are written down.

I hope you enjoyed this piece! I’ve had some major writer’s block and frustration with my work lately, so it was interesting to explore writing in the actual subject matter of this poem. Please feel free to leave feedback and writing challenges in the comments. I hope you guys are having a wonderful weekend. Stay safe and healthy out there.

Brooke

Good things are coming
and you can feel it when you're
flying high, clothes billowing out
like a roll of silk unfurled
with the wind.

Sweetness settled on your teeth
and in your gum line, on a sugar
high and ready to fly

Keep flapping the wings taped
to your arms, stretch out to full 
wingspan or else you may fall

The air will carry you even 
if there's smoke as long as you
keep going.

I hope you enjoyed this piece! It’s some cautious positivity for those of you who need it– I know I do. Please feel free to leave feedback and writing challenges in the comments! Have a great rest of your Sunday. Stay safe and healthy out there.

Brooke

The light streams in through the blinds,
but it can't kiss your skin from the window
when you're sitting inside, cooped up.
The work never ends if you don't cut it off,
and you'll end up waiting forever if
you're waiting for a time where you can 
sit outside in the sun without a care in 
the world. 

I hope you enjoyed this super short piece! At the time of writing this, I felt pretty overworked so I made it a point to give myself a break and try to have a more balanced weekend. Make sure to do that– this piece is more of a mini-warning than anything else. Please feel free to leave feedback and writing challenges in the comments. Stay safe and healthy out there.

Brooke

The wind is blowing a different way today.
You can tell by the palm trees' screams--
the tide is turning, the page has been flipped
over. Every way you can think to say it,
insert it here: {it is a new day and times are
changing}. The sun is shining brighter on us,
and the sweat collecting on the napes of 
our necks is glittery and beautiful, no longer
disgusting. Let's not jinx it, but you know
what is coming.

I hope you enjoyed this piece! I thought it was kind of a fun one, and it’s a self-aware manifestation in itself. Good things are coming soon, people… I can feel it. Please feel free to leave feedback and writing challenges in the comments. Stay safe and healthy out there.

Brooke