Poem by Halle Preneta — 9/21/22 watching the cars fly past you like flies around fruit; wild and excited and hungry for flesh ripe off bone. You think about taking a step forward into the abyss, watch your body fall apart limb by limb, your constellation fall apart star by…

Poem by Halle Preneta — 9/18/22 The floor brown, long, symmetric. The seats grey. The walls grey. Small yellow flowers the only living thing in the whole room. It is 5am. No one is here, just ghosts of the dead sitting in every chair, wandering, searching for what they have…

Poem by Halle Preneta — 9/15/22 She says “it was nice working with you” like this is a business transaction and not a goodbye. Maybe it isn’t a goodbye. A goodnight? An I’ll see you later? A see you never? I don’t know what this is, who we are, and…

Trigger warning: mentions of shooting and murder I wake up to images of a woman shooting a coworker I haven’t interacted with in a year in the head. I know my coworker doesn’t care about me and I know I don’t care about them yet my brain still finds itself…

Poem by Halle Preneta — 9/11/22 or myself or the world or the fact that my heart is a weight at the bottom of the sea, never able to float back up to the surface, left beating in fear of dying because of you. You’ve trapped my heart in a…

Poem by Halle Preneta — 9/8/22 I The one that will hold my hand when I cry. The one that will read every word I’ve ever written to you. The one that will drop everything the second I say “I’m in an emergency and I need your help.” Running to come…

Poem by Halle Preneta — 9/7/22 A white light glows at the end of a forest, guiding you towards the hope you’ve been looking for. The hope you’ve been longing for. Secretly waiting for in long hallways and under staircases and in every bathroom you’ve ever had a panic attack…

Poem by Halle Preneta — 9/6/22 still and quiet; gentle like a mother’s open hands ready to embrace you at any second. Watch as the stars twinkle down at you like traffic stops, a sky full of your ancestors watching you from above. Feel their love in the rain, in…

Poem by Halle Preneta — 9/5/22 Women, obviously. How the world becomes brighter with every person that walks past you like taking your sunglasses off and for a split second, the whole world is oversaturated with too much light. Too much exposure. How you know there’s beauty inside every single…