I’m Rev! I like bugs, words, and other things that are capable of taking flight. You can normally find me either half-asleep or half-awake.
“Art, as loosely explored through experience”
In art class, we made mugs. We formed them out of clay
And put them in the oven before going outside to play on the bridge that
Wobbled back and forth, but you couldn’t hold onto the chains to support yourself.
They’d leave your palms raw and burned, and the nurse never had an ice pack ready for you.
My mug broke in the sink, roughly three years after that day, and I cried. It was misshapen,
With bubbled insides and a handle that only a kindergartener could grasp,
But I loved it, and it was mine. There weren’t a lot of things I could call my own:
Pine needles in the stairwell, swingsets outside the apartment, and Oreos on top of the fridge.
Art was always my favorite class. Between puppets and self-portraits,
Paper mâché and buildings made of matches, still-life paintings and
Collages with newspaper and magazine clippings, art became my safe space,
Edges perforated and easy to tear; most of my lunches were spent hiding in that classroom.
It is hard to quantify the moments. The nows and the afters and the befores. I am often
Finding myself in the margins of these vast stories. There is no indelible self,
No true, real, definite me that can retell my tales. I am only a bystander in consciousness.
When I think of my childhood, I remember my pink, poorly painted flower
Smashed to pieces over shining, chrome-like steel, a clay reminder of youth.
Performance is my favorite kind of art because there is always something different
Between takes. I am one version of myself today, yet entirely different tomorrow,
This shapeshifting paroxysm of silly string. I fall apart every moment, but I hope
There is beauty somewhere in the midst, or at least a moment where bliss feels as wonderful
As it did the night I climbed the counter and ate Oreos from heights I didn’t know I could reach.
To enter your poem in the October Poem of the Month challenge, click this link!
To enter a poem (or ANY art / writing) in the Creative Quarterly, click this link!
To join The CHS Writers’ Circle, stop by Miss Hodge’s room any Thursday, after school!
