Scribbles on the Back of a Flyer
by E.W. Here
Eastern Washington University
E.W. Here is a senior at Eastern Washington University. They will be graduating with a Bachelor’s in Creative Writing this summer. E.W. has applied to their university’s MFA program in Poetry and hopes to start graduate school next year. A few years ago, theE.W. fell in love with poetry when they took their first creative writing class and has since been obsessed with the genre. E.W. really admires how the smaller moments of life can find their way into poems. “There’s magic everywhere if you look. I’m also fond of exploring my bonds with those I love and writing about them. When we’re all gone one day, my poems will be the best record of how I, and those in my life, lived”.
I love your black clothes. Mine are always so bright and colorful.
You describe yourself as such a small and frail little thing. I may
be even more frail. We can stand on our own, as shaky as we are.
We are both the strongest we have ever been. What if we knew
each other back when we were realizing how fragile we are? I
could’ve held out my arm to help stabilize you as you walked.
When I was crying, you could’ve sat with me, cupped one hand
around your mouth (as you do when you want to whisper
something blunt, but ultimately kind and caring) and told me why
life is so different for people like us. We could’ve covered each
other’s ears when the world was too loud. We could’ve leaned on
each other until we equaled a whole person. Maybe we would’ve
finally felt warm, even in winter. Bony fingers falling between
bony fingers. Thin wrists against thin wrists. I could’ve tried your
black scarf, and you could’ve tried my pink gloves.