light sources stratified
and the heights I never thought I'd reach
for years and years
I didn’t have light switches
though I was obsessed with stories
where the hero of light
defeats the darkness
I never stopped to think
about how those cliches
were reflected
like a lantern on the water
of my own life
About the Creator
Leigh Victoria Phan, MS, MFA
Writer, bookworm, sci-fi space cadet, and coffee+tea fanatic living in Brooklyn. I have an MS in Integrated Design & Media and an MFA in Fiction from NYU. I share poetry on Instagram as @SleeplessAuthoress.
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Day 4 of Quitting
If this is how sobriety feels, maybe it’s better to go through life a little buzzed… this, along with other hits like, I want to kill myself, I wish I was dead, and I’m going to throw myself off a bridge have been the only thoughts on rotation these past few days. I promise myself that if, in a month, I still feel like this (‘this’ meaning despondent, full of rage, and simultaneously numb) I can go back to smoking. Until mid-February though? Nicotine is off the table.
By sleepy drafts4 days ago in Longevity
Comments (1)
This glows with quiet truth. We learn to enjoy the light by comparing it with darkness. Your poem reminds me how stories reflect us long before we realize it—and how even the absence of light can shape our longing for it