a normal day, the same day (alone again.) by Erica Jwa (California)

Trigger Warning: Depression and Anxiety 
he says we all have anxiety and depression at her age–perhaps it is normal that nothing makes her happy anymore. it is a normal day as she struggles to wake, a robin chirping cheep-cheep on the telephone line 

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it is the same day as she plasters on a painted smile the brush of a tissue would leave streaked as she panics to pull out a brush, it is the same day as she lies heaving with her limbs sprawled across cold bathroom tile when the clock strikes 8, contemplating what any of it means. and as she unzips her shoe with her foot up like a flamingo, slinging her backpack to the floor, and as she rips her earbuds out with her eyes wept sore again, she is tired again, a burden again, isolated again, she is alone again, she is alone again. 

Erica Jwa is a high school senior from California who has been fascinated with poetry since the age of 7. She revels in the versatility of language and the way each writer melds together combinations of varying diction and literary devices to create their own unique voice. Her poetry and prose are like a diary encoded in figurative language, a window into a mind often riddled with endless streams of thought. She writes to understand her own emotions and bring them a physical presence, aiming to help others feel less alone in their experiences and verbalize what many may be harboring internally. ​