a place to write your heart out. anonymous submissions.

new prompts here and there whenever i come back to edit this page!! pls write about the moments that changed everything and the moments we let slip away.

inspired by my friend kyla at pure nowhere :)

October 2026

SEPTEMBER 2026

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SEPTEMBER 2026 •

writing

if i try to take too much control of where i’m going, i’m fkn doomed. you must open the portal HAHA. i always start imagining what i wanna say in all the empty space. all the feelings that come up when i sit down to write. learning to be alone with a notebook. outside, no phone. before the city wakes up. seeing what comes up. like a way to resensitize myself. sometimes the city triggers the fuck out of me and it feels good to come back to my body often. i used to loathe writing and i think i didn’t know how to express myself when i was younger bc i didn’t used to want to look at myself. but now i write nearly every day. my life has become this. lyrics. poems. letters i’ll never send. journal entries. it helps me feel things again and i wanna keep seeing what’s behind the curtain. (thank u dora jar)

JULY 2026

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JULY 2026 •

we’re doomed

it feels like magic

to give yourself

to someone

to let you

touch my soul

until you’re pushing me away

slowly

killing a part of me

that loves you

until you’re

drowning

in your own poison and

pleading with me

to stay

just long enough

until

i might reconsider.

APRIL 2025

•

APRIL 2025 •

What do you see?

how many times

can i sink to the bottom of the ocean

burying old memories

my eyes are too swollen to see.

looking for pieces of myself

lost in the dirt.

my memory’s not what it used to be

and my heart

won’t stop

like i hoped it would.

my body is revolting.

forcing me to look at

the lines in my cheeks

that have deepened

from a decade spent

learning to abandon myself.

39 beats per minute

a gesture of loyalty.

sometimes my heart slows down so much

i become afraid.

i realize i don’t know if i still want it to stop

like i used to.

we walk around as if

somehow

we’ll be spared.

as if

somehow

we’ll have enough time. as if

somehow

we’ll be here forever.

but we won’t.

i hope we get to stay

for a while tho.

even on the strangest days.

just a little longer.

i hope we find something beautiful

in the mess that’s been made.

JANUARY 2025

•

JANUARY 2025 •

Where does your pain live? What soothes it? What does it taste like?

i always turn the lock.

heavy handed on the porcelain and

i look different from the stories i tell myself.

brutal honesty is hard to come by.

and the years i’ve spent holding myself underwater

are catching up with me now.

i wanna see what it looks like.

the skin that doesn’t know how to repair itself.

the fatigue under my eyes.

i need to know it was real.

isolation is a poison.

killing the host slowly.

crushing dissent,

disarming,

unspeakable,

incorruptible.

i was naive for giving it a home.

for letting it leech the soul from my body.

for thinking, somehow, after everything,

i wouldn’t be so fucking alone.

i’ve been looking in the mirror lately,

where my fears become tangible.

when we are face to face.

i only look for long enough

when i’m high.

when my defenses crumble.

it’s hard to throw your life away

without guilt,

or swollen cheeks.

but the walls are beginning to

break down,

from neglect,

and carelessness.

from survival.

i think often of

the ways in which i’m not good enough.

the words with which I set myself on fire.

the poison that is killing me.

the poison that is the cure.

DECEMBER 2024

•

DECEMBER 2024 •

What part of yourself did you lose this year? What did you find?

it feels good to say, “i’m here for you”

but it’s rare to open yourself back up again

without being attacked,

though we dream of being held.

sometimes i visit my mom at her apartment,

though not as often as i should.

she teaches me how to cook

while i ask her existential questions.

she tells me laughter is the key to happiness

and i ask her more questions.

i haven’t laughed in a long time.

laughed like i’m crying.

like life feels like a miracle.

like my best friend kissing me on a swing set at 4:00 am.

like really truly knowing someone.

i haven’t felt like laughing lately.

life became so raw.

and heartbreaking.

i wonder often if she’s right.

i’m in the hospital and my friends like to tell me to

“stay positive” but i’m having trouble.

i tell the receptionists that “it’s ok” when the specialist is booked.

i tell my friends not to worry while my aneurysm is getting worse.

when the medications aren’t helping with the pain.

when my doctors are lost for words.

while my body becomes irreparable.

they tell me to “hang in there”

and i have a good attitude

while i’m having a stroke.

a calm demeanor

when i lose my vision,

when the surgery fails.

losing a part of me that won’t come back.

when my surgeons tell me i’ll be better suited for a desk job.

while i make peace with my life ending so soon.

i let go of things that used to make me happy.

i stay positive when we talk about

amputation.

losing control over my entire body.

i can’t remember the last time i laughed

since the procedure failed.

since they denied my insurance.

collections is fiending to collect.

we receive another bill.

i see martyrs

on my phone.

in flames.

in Gaza,

i see zionists killing hospital patients.

and my blood thinners aren’t enough to stop the clotting in my arm,

but i’m out of network anyways.

and it seems all i’ve been doing is trying to stay positive, but

i’m exhausted.

from having my heart prodded

and stabbed as if it were invincible.

and i know everyone wants me to smile more,

but i can’t remember feeling close to someone

who really knows me.

it gets so fucking lonely

in my room,

in the gurney

in the OR

hallucinating off the oxy

on the bathroom floor,

at a party surrounded by all of my friends.

and i’m sorry that i’m not the same person i used to be.

that i don’t laugh as much anymore.

not like I used to.

i guess you could say i haven’t been feeling like myself lately.

NOVEMBER 2024

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NOVEMBER 2024 •

What are you fighting for? human rights. palestine. my friends. myself. family. some chosen, some not.

How are you? at the end of october i left the hospital after waking up from surgery. i lost some vision and speech from three strokes in a week and wasn’t sure if i’d wake up again. i’ve been hoping with all my heart. hoping i’ll make a full recovery. but not everything is recoverable.

before surgery i was calm. which felt so good. hahaha. talking shit with all the surgeons in the OR and they fucking told me i was their best patient of the year WHAT i was like ‘you need to come to potrero and hang out and start skating.’ i’m still hoping they’ll show up one day. i was calm. i accepted that i might not wake up again. i looked at my surgeons right before i passed out and said, “yo remember to have fun!!! don’t forget to blast the music!!!!” everything went black. i woke up to my heart rate monitor blinking and a rush of voices flying past me after 7 hours of surgery. it was 2:00 am and i had nothing left to hide behind. i just cried. cried for probably a half-hour straight. cried my fucking heart out. heart on my sleeve. the incisions in my chest were raw. it was like waking up from a long sleep and knowing instantly that things will never be the same. but i’m really happy i’m still here. it finally feels like it was all worth it. <3