A few years back I started putting my poetry into "A Collection" here on Tablo, but since then it's gotten awfully full. Here's part two. 2017+

there's something,
something, I—
in the air there's something,
something I can't breathe in,
it's still
still laughing or
what
it's
it's a balloon
or an emperor
or a text message
from my mom reminding me to eat
and pray and
breathe.

When I was two I jumped into my birthday cake.
I think I was in a red dress,
but science says our memories aren't actually that great at remembering things.

When I was nine I was an Olympic sprinter.
And an astronomer.
And a contestant on American Idol.
And a green belt in Tae Kwon Do.

When I was ten I sat in a tree in our front yard for five hours waiting for my cousins' car to pull up into the driveway.
I was playing on my Nintendo DS and reading Harry Potter.

When I was thirteen I wanted to be a psychic and a philosopher.
I thought myself a great thinker,
I read auras and contemplated the void.

When I was eighteen I lay in a hammock on a beach in Cambodia with a bottle of wine and watched the sun set.

I am twenty.
I am still alive.