Unknown Cords by Stella Jackson (17, Alabama)

Occasionally, 
there will be a time or place, the oddity of a day. 
that twists and ties 
the cords within me; leaves me with this unseemly mass 
of contradictory 
nonsense– 

---

I stand, and say, 
I feel sorrowful, 
radiant, forgetful, 
silly, remorseful– 
and I have not 
the faintest clue 
why. 

​I sit down, with careful fingers
gingerly sorting through the knots,
the why and the how 
but still, I am left 

                      ​c 
o 
            n 
    f 
                     u 
        s 
                 e 
           d. 

​this tangle of knots, 
inherent to living– 
is it delusion 
to want its solving?