Marshland | Teen Ink

Marshland

July 24, 2024
By IzzathFathima BRONZE, Singapore, Other
IzzathFathima BRONZE, Singapore, Other
2 articles 0 photos 0 comments

A new want that drives the screw through and through and through my rib cage until the nifty little end pokes my heart.


It's meant to tickle,

I know it's meant to tickle,

but all it does is sting.


A fatal error has occurred.

Communication to the server has been lost.


Knowing never really changes anything. 


The door opens and all the life spills in.

Your heart cracks open like a yawning mouth and it all hops right out.


I'm looking into the past with binoculars but my eyes are weary and everything is a marshland.

This room was more filled last I saw it.

My feet stood firmer on the ground the last time I was here.


I don't know.

Maybe, I imagined it all.

Maybe, I named it myself.

Maybe, I sat on the floor of my living room and carved and carved a foam board until it resembled something that wasn't a geometric shape.

I don't know.

Maybe, the dawn caught me like a mother or a river that had been redirected.

Maybe, it found me standing unsteady and stole me away.

I don't know,

my eyes are weary. 

 

Everything is a marshland.


The author's comments:

This came into creation at around noon on a weekday when I logged onto my school's website to work on my assignments and instead received a notification that the connection to server has been lost. In that moment, the robotic, automated pop-up struck me so shockingly close and I just stared at it for a long time. My eyes were burning from lack of sufficient sleep and I hadn't seen my best friends in weeks. 

I think, truly, when we reminisce, we are all looking into what was with binoculars. Searching for small details and little flickers that make memories so hurtfully personal while simultaneously molding something tangible and present in your hands into something that is unique. Something that can be displayed. I don't know if it was my exhaustion or my longing or my school itself that led to this piece, but it's here. Like everything else, it's here.


Similar Articles

JOIN THE DISCUSSION

This article has 0 comments.