you have memories from 4 years ago today
and you’re crying in them. you were always
crying back then, but you don’t remember
anymore, only the funny pictures
that came of it. you always had a misplaced
sense of humor, shakespeare quotes
turned to snapchat captions mid-cry just
because. you also don’t remember your skin
being so bumpy and upset, but
it makes sense, the crater-redness
and dark-circle despair. you accept yourself
now, finally, after an old friend promised
over facetime that everyone left
high school feeling like shit, or at least
you both did, and i think you remember
after all, why all the crying, why it was
always more than physics and heartbreak
and sitting on the crunchy paper of
the doctor’s exam table and your lying teeth.
Noreen Ocampo (she/her) is a Filipina American writer and poet based in metro-Atlanta. She studies English, film, and media at Emory University and currently writes for COUNTERCLOCK and {m}aganda magazine. She is also a regular contributor for Marías at Sampaguitas. Say hi on Twitter @maybenoreen!