Ode to Angst
by Mercedez Rodriguez
University of the Incarnate Word
Mercedes Rodriguez is currently a second-year junior at UIW with a major in English and a minor in Creative Writing who is expected to graduate in 2025. She enjoys both writing and creating art.
Sadness is just a landslide with tears streaming down that can’t quite read a room waiting for the tissue to soak up the salt before the wax seal breaks and the sea spreads and the salt burns the fresh cut and Anger is a burning ball of wrath ready to be extinguished it’s scorching hot like the thrift store tea kettle whistling for your attention and without an oven mitt to keep you safe while someone keeps calling your phone over and over again and the doorbell rings and you’re all alone and Happiness holds a needle close to the heart sewing punctures back to one piece but it’s never been a seamstress or a tailor just a klutz with some thread and an optimistic attitude and a YouTube video titled “how to sew in ten minutes for complete beginners: dummy edition” and Anxiety is a green thing with asthma making you feel like you’re dying inside while the waitress says “enjoy your food” and you reply “you too”and the waitress with her wrinkles and smokey hair gives you an awkward smile not saying another word just before turning around to walk away as your face blushes with unnatural colors of red and pink and fuchsia and crimson and the moment won’t stop replaying in your head every day for a week and for a month and it will continue to pop in unannounced for the rest of your life while everything else just forgets it all ever happened to you but you don’t.
