When She Takes Flight (Unabridged‪)‬

I’m not a love poet.

I just can’t really force out butterflies

sweet nothings erupting from my being

warmth

turned fire

undying infatuation.

But this time, I want to write a love poem.

As a woman of color starting college at a predominantly white university, the impressionably vulnerable ages of 18 and 19 were rough. Thankfully, I have all my dances with introspection in writing.

When She Takes Flight is a poetry chapbook unearthing real-life experiences of love and its many shadows, while also taking a centralized focus toward a personal wrestle with race and belonging. Through this, the themes of self-discovery and acceptance are explored, not only aiming to bring to light a depiction of growth and progression within a personal narrative, but also to spark growth and renewal in the suffocating societal tendencies that are overlooked in order to make a worthwhile attempt in halting the saturation of this same wrestle in others.