homesick by Lexi Lynn (16, California)

17 years of sleepless hours spent trying to scrub the coldness from my bones. the moon and I share a secret loneliness through my stardust-smudged window. I ask, will we ever know?

nights spent squinting at the glow-in-the-dark stars pasted lazily above my head. the glacial uncertainty will never leave my body; it will continue to starve me until I run out of sentences. a haunting epiphany waltzes through the desolate night until it finds me alone in my glowing bedroom, heart pulsing to the movement of the pas de deux.

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the silence keeps me awake: when the symphonies and cicadas and sitcoms are muted, my mind seems to be the only thing never ceasing to buzz. icy rivers of tears voyage paths down my sandpaper skin and create new homes for themselves in the woven cotton of my weathered pillowcase. it must feel nice to have a home.

still, I wrap my stained comforter around my body, convinced of warmer weather and a place among the stars. 

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