A NON-EXHAUSTIVE LIST OF THINGS I’M NOT SORRY FOR
crying on the bus during rush hour / going five years without hearing my grandparent’s voices / using all the sticky notes / being glad our cat died before our vacation / stealing food from grocery stores / stealing anything I can / going to bed early / just to lie there for hours and wonder if I should have been more thorough when I was fourteen / leaving the trash by the back door / going five days without washing my hair / going twenty three years without saying I love you / crying in your bed on our first date / never learning how to cook raw chicken properly / never learning how to ride a bike without feeling like it’s a test / never learning how to speak / never learning how to feel things without becoming them / not being able to cry when I wish I could / suddenly knowing how to cry when I shouldn’t / knowing the difference between platonicity and romance / just to call them by my own name
— ODH
About the Creator
Olivia Dodge
23 | Chicago
ig: l1vyzzzz & lntlmate
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More stories from Olivia Dodge and writers in Poets and other communities.
Unforgivable Stitches
April 2025 11:24pm To be a dreamer is foolish, taught to us in shadows of expression, fools approach me more than a decent living nowadays, and do you think you can go on living? Do you think you can string it together, make a pretty picture on a cork board, and we’ll all forget that you can’t tell up from down? That you were born all twisted up and unforgiving? Fools don’t approach you anymore, you carved yourself a chasm in bedrock but it’s really made of the same cushions your ancestors stitched together, and what does string have to do with lessons learned? To be a dreamer means criss-crossing plays an essential role, to be a fool means you have already been assigned a part, and to be me or to be you means a decent living is nothing to be taught, nothing to be learned, but to be recognized. We can go on living because what else is there to do, other than break apart the puzzle and stick the box in the closet to be well rested for our children. It’s upside down, so mind your head in thirty years, and if a missing piece falls beneath wood, then it’s time to dig. The clock is ticking. Dreams won’t satisfy anyone. Teach them of light source and make sure you get the thick strands from the store down the road, it’s worth it in the end.
By Olivia Dodge9 months ago in Poets
FPS: The Last Flame Challenge Winners
Welcome to our first Winners Announcement of the year and to the final challenge in the Fall Poetry Series. The Last Flame invited writers to sit with endings, using fire as a central image to consider what remains when something burns out: ash, warmth, memory, silence, or the faint promise of what comes next. The strongest pieces treated endings as gradual rather than sudden, allowing them to flicker, dim, and linger.
By Vocal Curation Team7 days ago in Resources
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