A short, straightforward, blunt poem about the internal conflict that arrises when self-restraint and lingering desire collide. Between refusal and want existing at the same time without resolution. It moves through anger dissolving into something more vulnerable, and what remains after the anger fades, and what lingers underneath even when we insist we will not return to it.

A revisited poem from my archives about transformation, devotion, and the strange alchemy of loving someone who feels like they change everything they touch. The Alchemist lingers in that space between admiration and transformation, and the strange way some people can feel like they transmute the world around them.

Inspired by a Robert Frost poem discussed in class (the title now lost to memory), this piece explores the quiet weight of inertia, the ache of stillness, and the pull toward motion and connection. With threads of introspection, Hawaiian language, and poetic uncertainty, the speaker reckons with what it means to remain unseen—and what it might take to move. The meaning is yours to interpret.

In Fall 2023, I created a poetic form I call Matryoshka Poetry—inspired by Russian nesting dolls. Each poem holds at least two stories: an outer narrative and a hidden inner truth. The inner story can stand alone, but it deepens the outer one, which can’t be fully understood without it. This form invites readers to read between the lines.