by Mel Eaton

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What I want in life is to-

            -Write my heart out until my fingers grow graphite legs and scribble away.

                        -Square up with fear and make the first punch

                                    -Throw my art to the wind and let God be the judge:

                                                (tho with the rain, I can’t tell if it is happy or sad)

                        -Skip across the cracked asphalt with diploma in hand

                                    -Live in a van and croak with the bullfrogs;

                                               gossiping about the last dragonfly they had.

                        -Stare into the sun and lay in the chalkiness curled around a cactus trunk

                                                kissing the spines one by one.

            -Dissolve into a puddle of spittle on a pillow full of wasted dreams.

What I need in life is to-

            -Know that what I’m feeling is really love or an aneurysm about to burst.

                        -Scream sweet nothings into the bottom of a blood pit.

                                    -Pinch my nose at the stagnant words it spats back.

                                               (but do I mean what I say or?...)

                        -Spin so fast that the rainbow bubbles up from my nose with a lavender scent,

                                    tasting nothing like what skittles promised.

                        -Safely land onto a pile of tea leaves, where I steep with the memories,

                                               flowing like golden waves sloshing along the rim of a:

            tea cup called home.

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Mel Eaton (They/Them) is a non-binary student at Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri. They are majoring in creative writing and film study. They have previously been published in, Eloquence: 2015 Poetry Collection, Anvil and Lyre 2020, Oneiroi 2022, Windfall 2022 and Windfall 2023. Mel has worked alongside Green Hills Literary Lantern as a general editor and plans to go to Denver Publishing Institute to further their education in publishing and editing for small literary journals.

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