rose
no one realizes how much the rose can hurt until her blade sinks in. crimson is her favorite color; so she covers her well-concealed thorns with it. she'll wear cocktail dresses and hide daggers in the sleeves of her cardigan. she'll brandish her petals coyly and stride about in stilettos. "im beautiful and flourishing," she'll murmur quietly, with a small smirk, "but while they're admiring my petals, they've forgotten all about my thorns."

chrysanthemum
sugar-sweet but has monsters within....

dearest aphrodite,

from what will you ever pain from,
like i have?
you play your romantic games with
us,
the mortals,
only not to care when we suffer.
broken bones and broken hearts,
are nothing
but
quiet tears and wet pages,
suppressed
smothered
hidden.

is this what you intended?
to face a mortal-
a heartbroken, suffering
mortal stained with
gold,
your gold.
your life fluid.
your blood.

your little romantic games
have vast effect
on people like us.
we're fragile...

Dear humans,

So... to be frank, it's been a rough year.

Everything from murder hornets to a global pandemic has been thrown at us. Wildfires, the Trump-Biden election, remote learning, social distancing, vaccine distribution, unemployment, and so, so, so much more have been placed upon the shoulders of the world. But there are good things that came from this year: issues that have prevailed for years, like racism and global warming, are finally being more widely recognized. We are bearing...