2nd Place in the April 2021 Poetry Contest
lover and a fighter so what if i am a lover and a fighter
i do not want to choose between tenderness and bravery
because like fingers intertwined, one requires the other
i am allowed to be both a rose and its thorns,
a work of art and the glass that encases it,
all at once
i exhale a love so strong
it feels like a blow to the chest, a breathless high
my heart is my strongest muscle,
and i brandish it like a ready fist.
eager to show my strength,
i exercise it recklessly
perhaps love is the fight,
and the fight, an act of love.
Victoria Register is an Asian American first generation pre-nursing student from Atlanta, Georgia. When she’s not writing poetry on the Notes app, she dances with the Movement as One Dance Company and is the current External Vice President for the Kennesaw State University Filipino Student Association. If you’d like to read more of her work, her poetry Instagram is @victoriauthor! Pronouns: she/her/hers