my small body

by Halle Gulbrandsen

last night
my career rolled over
and refused
to get up

and i thought,
good riddance

I’ve been watering
the wrong dreams
for so long now

time

isn’t easy
to come by

after all when minutes fall
from a stranger’s pocket
in a parking lot
you can’t just pick them up

I want to be more
than what my choices
have made me

show the world
growth
isn’t always skyward

a small aspen
harbours miles
of roots
a firm grip

my small body
more than branches
offering flowers
to sun

my small body
a pin on a map
where
the rest of me begins

— from Juniper Volume 3, Issue 1