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BY Hieu T.
Posted on July 1, 2023
Cover Image Title: Footsteps in the Sand
Cover Image by: Janani Venkat Ramanan
Classification: Photography
Specifications: Resized from 4032 x 3024, shot at Gulf Shores, Mississippi
Year: 2023
In my prayers
I stand on a safe seed
Legs no longer
Knowing where to go
Only to find out
That they needed to stay
The rest of my hair
Flowing off into the wind
‘Til my crown is left
With the cut
It always wanted
My face
Now seen as mine
In the eyes that always found
Gold in everything, not mined
Its features deemed
Lightweight
Enough
A smile
Once an expensive foreign
Now taken
For the ride of its life
This body
Once invisible
Non-existent flaws
Of fake-gold, yellow
Now gleam
With treasure uncovered
Buried in the hollow
And that’s just the half of it.
My mind is now
My voice
And
My voice is now
My mind
What I mind
I say
What I don’t mind
I say
Everything I want
Is on the island
Of my tone
Mind you
And I think that’s all
Unluckily
Luckily
I’ll eventually
Forget
Which is why
I say
Too much
But that’s okay
Because
Regardless
I still am
Who I am
A blessing
In the guise
of a
Nightmare
Descriptions:
[Ước ─To wish, to yearn]
This piece was created during a time of great confusion for myself. I had dreams of soaring, yet, I was pulled down by the reality around me. I was put in a juxtaposition: I feared the opinions of those around me, and I felt an overwhelming obligation to remain the person that others around me thought I was. As a person who feels profound emotions that otherwise cannot be expressed in a verbal manner, I use this poem as an outlet to delve into my wishes and desires. Throughout each line, I compare who it is that I currently am, with who it is that I wish to be, using present tense, as a means to manifest those desires into reality. Until I came to the realization that the righteous person that I wanted to be was there all along, it was just underneath the layers of my fears.
[ * The End * ]
[Writing Editor: Kimberly Nguyen]