Poems
By Sophia Clark
Teacups
Yellow, white; boney.
The smell, distinctly of crayons soaks into my brain,
Causing confusion -
For I know not who I am,
Where I am,
Or what I ever was.
An unsettling feeling clutches at my ribs,
Prying their creaky qualities apart,
Stretching my skin to a sickening length.
Unhealthy the thoughts are of so many.
Blue lips and hands;
A disrupted mind.
All I see is fog.
All I know and feel:
Blank expressions staring back at me,
The fog surrounding and consuming their tilted heads.
Painted grey, always.
Attached to the bone and not the fog,
Empty teacups,
Waiting to be filled.
But who will?
Who would?
The voices echo from deep inside,
Causing a rancid after-taste that only the dead could kiss,
Their saliva wreaking the corrupted air and choking atmosphere.
These yellow and white bones,
Hold the weight,
Of a thousand empty teacups,
Whose ceramic interiors will never feel
The warmth that they deserve,
But instead,
Choke and freeze.
For my stomach is full,
and all of the expressions,
will forever remain blank.
She Feels
She feels like dark skin,
Living in Old America.
She feels like a slave,
Whipped when disobedient.
She feels like a Jew,
Held in a Nazi camp,
The gas chambers awaiting her scheduled death.
She feels like a rape victim,
Held against their will;
Abandoned in the dark.
She feels bruised and bloody,
Beaten down by abusive hands.
She feels like many historical, assassinated figures of the past,
As the bullets and knives penetrated their bodies.
She feels like the earth as it burns,
It’s temperatures rising, species dying, and ecosystems collapsing,
Abolishing it’s once entirely beautiful surface and source of life away.
She feels like the coral in the oceans,
Bleaching; decaying.
Dying as their colors diminish and disappear.
She feels like a majority of LGBTQ+ members,
Discriminated for finding their true selves,
Sinned, mocked and made fun of.
She feels like a disorder,
As the thoughts twist and manipulate her Perception.
She feels like a student,
As the suffocation of anxiety and stress takes over.
She feels like the homeless;
Afraid, starving and humiliated.
She feels hopeless;
Alone.
The same way she always has.
She feels so many things,
Too many things;
This societal corruption,
That she cannot even begin to comprehend.