Love will protect its own, but maybe
I am not yet its daughter. For I dedicate...

Cherry blossoms
engrave their fragrance...

I wanted to cry, summon the emotions to cascade
down my cheeks and sink into the dry soil...

Circumstance
metamorphosizes...

I thought I was his friend
the kind who doesn't know...

You first came across her
at the Amtrak station in Waterloo...

Does love arrive with a storm
or fly onto me with silent grace...

Nor are we slaves of popularity,
prisoners of style and peer pressure...

I'm near the horizon-
staggering, dizzy...

This is how we choose to honor,
how we become devoted...

I'm sorry for disappointing you,
again. And how it's always that...

My cousin's pregnant during a pandemic.
We're the same age. We share the same first name...