My Very Own Lost and Missing Piece
I’ll be resigned to platonic love.
The kind between long time friends
And the family you’ve always known.
It’ll still be warm —
Still be comfortable —
Still be kind —
But it will never
Be you.
The love of a fairytale:
With fights and ups and downs,
A problem here, a solution there,
The big break up and the reunion
That make it all okay;
Sounds enchanting, and strange.
The soulmate love is beautiful
(too high strung, too unbelievable,
Too perfect, too good to be anything
Other than a dream).
I like to pretend it’s real
When it’s in my hands, crafted between pages
Fighting with my lover who comes back to me
(always better than before),
Our love is stronger than it was.
The weight of the words settles in my chest;
There is no platonic love there,
Only the beauty of the world
That lasts forever.
But my world is not full of those kinds of soulmates,
And those picturesque dreams only last for a night.
And we will only dance around a path
Of endless devotion and love
When we can reach the stars:
Already torn to a million pieces
And able to blend together again.
The Suffocation of a Child
I just want the best for you, sweetheart.
The best for you will be the best for me.
Look at all we’ve been through together.
Look what you’ve lived through, I made you.
You’ll take care of me, right?
You owe me this much, darling.
I’m so proud of you.
I’m waiting for the day you’ll be worth it to me.
Richelle Boyd is a senior at UC Santa Barbara and has written poetry for the literary magazines The Catalyst and The Sand Canyon Review. She has also done journalism for UCSB and abroad through Berlin Beyond Borders,
focusing on feature and news stories on a variety of topics like activism, refugees, technology, and culture. Richelle is an aspiring author and novelist and mostly focuses on fiction and poetry.