Page 44 of Poetry of Flowers

Autumn rolls her eyes, “Because it’s embarrassing, he was like twenty-one, and I was fifteen. I was dumb and naïve because he liked me like that, I couldn’t speak back, and he loved not having true vulnerability with me. When I wanted to break up, he pulled the whole show, cried and told me he needed me to help him get over his trauma from his mother. Every woman would want to hear that, right? I told him to find a therapist and never saw him again, gladly.”

“You can’t just put every guy with mommy issues in the same pot just because one was a weirdo.” Theo said, not looking up from his phone.

“Why? Got some Theodore?”

“Sure, my mom left to join the military after she divorced my father, and I didn’t see her often. She’s currently in Germany, I haven’t seen her for about nine months.”

Theo slid his phone in his jeans pocket and turned to face her. “But I don’t go after minors and let them feel my PTSD from it, Kennedy.”

Shit, Theo.

Autumn stiffened beside him, glaring at him with a death stare that could kill an entire army.

Autumn is her middle name; her first name is Kennedy, after her deceased brother.

I really liked her parents, but the meaning behind the name Kennedy was seriously messed up. I didn’t know the full story because Tillie kept her cousin’s secrets.

Tillie only told me a tiny bit, after I had asked her who the little boy in the old family picture was.

“Fuck you, Theodore,” she hissed and turned her head away.

I kicked Theo against the shins, “what’s wrong with you? You know she hates that.”

“I know,” he said, before he pulled his phone back out and concentrated on the screen.

Theo didn’t know why she hated that name that she had to hear each day at home, but still, he messed up.

Drowning - April 18, 2022

It’s a metaphor of the mind,

nightmares suffocate your senses of reality and imagination.

It’s the question of why that makes us blind,

What’s the link between water and terror?

When we drown, we start swimming,

Searching for the surface.

Water has a brutal nature, there’s no chance of winning,

Fighting is worthless.

Nightmares aren’t real,

Behind every folklore lies a truth.

Behind every nightmare is a deal,

Make it your reality and choose youth.

Your mind is a child,

Imagination, playful and free.

The inner child lives forever if it’s not exiled.

---