Rose Petals

I’ve spent the morning

Sweeping white and red rose petals

Across the floor

Blood and water

Swirling together but

Refusing to mix

Little droplets of wine and cellophane

Dancing around one another

And singing sugary

Perfume titles

Chanel, Clive Christian, Baccarat, Shalini

As if roses cost fortunes

Only to end up in

My dust pan

A collection of riches

For the trash

 

I literally wrote this because I had to sweep up rose petals one morning. That morning was during my senior year of high school, so I figured it was time to lay this one to rest now that I’m a sophomore in college. I really like some of the imagery of this poem, but I didn’t know quite where to take it, so I took it to the trash can just like I did to those petals. I’ve truly come full circle here. I really liked the idea of naming really expensive perfumes for some reason when I started this, which I now think is a bit dumb, but I loved it so much back then that I decided to keep it. This is a bit of a nonsense poem, but that’s okay. Nothing is ever perfect, this just happens to be far from perfect. Well, that’s one of the endless poems I have in my drafts done. I might revisit some of the ideas here one day for another poem, but for now this one is done.

-AcuteAnimosity

 

 

Bloody Good Thing To Do

Hey guys, so this is a little different than what I usually post. I am planning on giving blood tomorrow, and so I just wanted to talk about that a little. Typically when you talk about donating blood, everyone goes “Oh no I could never do that!” However, I want to clear up some things about giving blood, and with any luck I might convince some of you to strive for the gallon club.

The first thing people worry about is the needle. Yes, there will be a needle in your arm. If you’ve gotten a tattoo before, you can’t use the needle excuse anymore honey. Once you’ve voluntarily had a needle poke in and out in and out, you can more than handle giving blood. That’s what got me to donate, after I got my tattoo, I realized I had no excuse to be afraid of vaccines or giving blood. If you don’t have a tattoo, and you’re afraid of needles, think about saving lives. Your blood will save someone’s life. In fact, one pint can save up to three people. Maybe you’ll help someone’s child, someone’s mom, teacher, grandparent, spouse, no matter what you will be saving a fellow human being. Real people depend on blood from donors. What if one day you need blood? If my little think of others speech didn’t make you feel anything, well you might want to check your moral compass. Seriously if you need a selfish reason to give blood, if you sign up at the right times you can get giftcards to places, some places have a point system to get free stuff, if nothing else you get cookies at the end.

Okay, let me tell you a little bit about the process. You will wait a little and they will convince you to drink an entire bottle of water. You will go into a little closed off area with a nurse and answer some questions. Then she will take your temperature, pulse, and iron levels. Yes, the iron level test is a little needle. Girls, you go through this every time you’re at the doctors, you can do this. Boys, it’s a little prick, it really doesn’t even hurt, you’ll be fine. Next, if you’ve passed all the tests, they will bring you to a cot. They will put a band around your arm and find a vein. You will be given a stress ball to squeeze. Then you will lay down, and they’ll put the needle in. Yes, it’s a little freaky, but it only hurts for half a second before you don’t even feel it anymore. You will have to squeeze the stress ball every 10 seconds will giving blood. When they’ve got a pint they’ll tell you to stop squeezing, and they’ll take out the needle. You’ll hold a piece of gauze to your arm and stay laying down for a while. Lastly, you’ll go to the area with food and drinks to wait ten minutes before you can go home. That’s it.

Now, if you still are squeamish and don’t want to donate, I’m a little 5’3 girl who faints after every time I give blood. I walk into that donation room, knowing I’m going to faint. Giving blood is a whole day event for me. I FAINT AND I STILL DO IT. Don’t let a little, shy, jumpy girl be more badass and cool than you. I’m scared of spiders, the ocean, cities, crowded spaces, people I don’t know, I’m scared of a lot. Don’t be more of a fraidy cat than me. Do a bloody good thing by giving blood. You can really help people. Also, most people don’t faint. It’s rare that I faint, and nurses are often very surprised that I faint. More than likely, you will not faint, especially if you prepare by getting tons of iron and drinking tons of water. Go donate blood and join the gallon club! It’s more than worth it!

-AcuteAnimosity

Story Time

This is another story that has poetry and prose. I actually wrote this in creative writing class. I was assigned the poetry part (which is in italics), and it’s a quote by Shel Silverstein. I’ve been getting really positive feedback on my short stories so I’m going to keep posting them. This may actually be the last story I have already written to post because the others I wrote in creative writing are just way too long. I really hope you all enjoy this, and tell me what you think! I am working on more stories, but since I’ve always been more of a poetry girl, it may be a bit of a wait.

 

 

My ears popped as I shot out of the water like a bullet. “I touched the bottom! I went all the way down!” I shouted with a dopey smile on my face. No one can swim better than me. Everyone knows it too. When it comes time to pick swim buddies, every camper sprints to my side because they know I’ll take them out all the way to the edge of the deep.

She had blue skin

            “Get back from the rope!” a shrill whistle shatters my ears. Okay, maybe I went a little beyond the rope, but I was underwater, how was I supposed to know they could see me all the way out here. I don’t even know why there’s a rope, I should be allowed to swim all the way across the lake because I’m that good.

And so did he

“Buddy check!” a counselor screams. I roll my eyes back till it hurts and then do a quick spin to find Jonny. He’s the fastest kid in all the camp. Everyone wants him on their team when it’s relay day, but he isn’t the best swimmer, so I left him back in the middle area.

He kept it hid

“Jonny! Get over here, it’s buddy check time,” I said while tilting my head to the side to drain the water. “Jonny?” I looked all around and saw that everyone else had found their buddy and was standing with their arms locked and in the air like champions. I didn’t see Jonny anywhere.

And so did she

            Panic crammed its way down my throat like lake water when you dive with your mouth open. I always find my buddy. I’ve been coming to camp every year since forever, and I’ve never lost my buddy. I start frantically waving my arms in the air and screaming “Jonny! Jonny!”

They searched for blue

            Lifeguards swan dived off their tall thrones and began the search. All the kids climbed up the ladder and on to the dock. All the kids except me, I wasn’t leaving Jonny behind. I aimed my head down and blew air out of my nose as I went down to the dark bottom of the lake.

Their whole life through

            My arm smacked into something hard and cold. It’s an anchor and wrapped around the anchor was string, no not string. Jonny’s long brown hair was tangled around the chain of this old anchor. As scream bubbled out of my mouth as I finally felt his squishy arm.

Then passed right by-

            My ears popped as I shot out of the water like a bullet.

And never knew

            I stopped swimming that day, but years later and I swear there’s still water in my ear.

-AcuteAnimosity