Ode to A.J at Prufrock
I stand at the tip top of Prufrock Mountain shouting
“I don’t feel so alone anymore!”
Tossing a heavy parka off my widened shoulders
relishing in this newfound ease
leaving my ranger to the maggots
writhing helplessly in the muted green
Not to mention the beauty found here pushes fiercely in the breeze
Upside triangles form a mountain range
of bodies 4 wide
shoulders range opposite the base
knowing wholly our place in the sky
unweathered and pure
uneroded and sure in the times we gather and deliberate
the bitter consequences of an ill escape
an ill birth on an iller date
a now ill body sits on an ill edge
battered by the journey
my person begs to still mend
on the way down
sun setting
Aurora Borealis
reflects off the snow
glitter wisps sneak up behind us
floating to a drip sinking to a flow
but to sit isn’t timelessly minded
I stand
a mistake i know that now
the manner of how the chill will bring me down
I slip and fall and hit my head
with a busted lip ive wound up dead
rolling writhe down the snow
avalanche of human throws me down
in one too many shows of my peaking pride
fiercey breeze is shoving me by
to fall and fall eternally
and fall and fall
and snap and break and take in all the snow and pink and blues and consequence
of being someone id not like shown
a championed vicennial burden
marked unassumingly by one 13
global matters centered here then and now
at the base where no one dreams
of upside triangles as a mountain range
made of bodies 4 wide
in the end blank terrain had brought us down
and in sooty snow i have come to drown.
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Allahna Johnson (she/her) is a sophomore studying Social Welfare and Spanish. She usually writes poetry but wanted to experiment with a short story for this submission. She is passionate about musical theater, mental health advocacy, and creating on a multitude of levels.