Author: Olivia Adkins
FALLING
the air would go from stagnant to invasive on one autumnal night there was never much warning and i would finally be covered in turtlenecks and the trees would say and say fine i was tired anyways and drop all the leaves they’d been balancing for months and caterpillars disappeared because the future was different now and the ugly birds crowed because now, now was their season everyone is ugly in ...
BUTTERFLIES
I found my sister laying in the grass. Tucked into the fetal position. She stood out, starkly translucent against a dark green spread. She looked so small. Like a pale yellow butterfly fallen from the sky, crumpled up like a napkin. too tired to fly. Sharp inhale. For a true half of a second, I thought she was dead. My little sister has two eating disorders. She has two diseases ripping her apart ...
MY STRENGTH IS NOT WEAKNESS
I’m five feet two inches and 107 pounds. I probably can’t do a pull up. Not that I would be one to try. One thing I’ve never been described as in my life is strong. I can’t count the number of times I’ve been told to speak louder, be more authoritarian, stop being so nice. I’ve been told to lean in, stand up, take up more space, take charge, say no. The older I get, the more competitive environmen...
A SHORT COLLECTION OF WORDS
the fire comes when you realize you have given boys a taste of figs when they will settle for store bought minds that are good but they are not oceans they will drown in you you feel it burning in your belly when you remember what they called love didn’t feel like soaring it felt like a twin bed small great women you whisper cannot be handled by lesser men the lava boils over when you understand w...
NOT LIKE OTHER GIRLS
We’ve all heard it before. Whether it was from the Manic Pixie Dream Girl in another John Green novel or from one of those anonymous “Typical White Girl” Twitter accounts. We’ve all probably been guilty of using this sentiment as well. I have. The thing is: when did it become so wrong to “be like other girls”? Why has the simple act of being our gender pushed us against a wall and thrown us into a...
