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Dinner Date, 4/11/21

Mina is my room mate and best buddy. She is a cockatiel, a small type of cockatoo native to Australia. She’s been a member of the family since June of 2020, when my previous family bird passed away, but I brought her to campus as an Emotional Support Animal (ESA) starting this semester, spring 2021. She has been a huge source of happiness and has given me excellent company. She’s only a year old and has a life expectancy of about 20 years, so I’m excited to have her in my life for a long, long time. 

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Amygdala, 4/8/21

Today, my brother and I visited the Amygdala exhibit at the Ferst Center for the Arts. At the plaza just in front of the center, there is a circular configuration of screens displaying tweets as they are published in real time. When you go into the building, there are screens that show the purpose and methods of the exhibit- millions of tweets are analyzed for semantics and every 10 minutes, a bar showing the emotion(s) in the tweets from that 10-minute cycle shows up in this wheel. It is interesting to see how emotions themselves trend across the world- and it was cool to see that one of my favorite bands, NCT, was a trending topic during the cycle I saw appear on the wheel!

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Community Garden, 4/8/2021 

After getting my first COVID vaccine dose, I visited the GT Community Garden just off the side of the Instructional Center (IC). There were four patches of these enormous, fresh clovers, and the air had that light green springy scent that clears my mind and makes me remember to live in the moment- and appreciate little clovers growing cheerfully at my feet.

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Van Leer in Springtime, 4/7/2021

Walking to lab in room 348 of the Van Leer building, I noticed a ray of pink azaleas acting as a buffer between young, unruly ferns, and the restrained geometry of the windowed wall beyond. 

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Triste por nada 4/20/2020

Triste por nada

triste por cosas que no puedo contar, por cosas que 

no han de perturbarme,

triste por recuerdos que guardo 

que saco en noches cálidas como esta

Recuerdos que se me disuelven 

como azúcar al ver tu foto, 

y pensar que en realidad ya no te conozco 

que es solo la lenta luna de esta noche lenta que me 

produce un leve lagrimeo 

que ni osa de escapar del parpado 

por miedo a dar razón a mis miedos,

que te echare de verdad de menos

Cosa que no puedo sentir.

Cosa que no puedo contar.

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I needed the spring to come again

every day that the trees bloom 

I see the houses behind them less and less,

every day that their leaves unfurl 

the scars of winter become more and more distant.

as the spring greens grow and fluoresce 

the blues of old memories fade and pass -

I needed the spring to come again

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pictures

you stop the car at the rainy intersection 

pushing away your curls matching the night

to steal shots of the strung-up city lights 

aiming pristine white fog 

through the red incandescence of taillights 

at the raindrops stuck like sequins to the windows 

pulsing with every slow bass roll

shaking with electricity and sound 

and from the back seat

it looks like we’re in a meteor shower 

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Skycrapers

I wish the moon 

would fall 

and these buildings 

of stars

would pierce it 

and break it in half

like a geode

of white, pure light 

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drafts 11/28/17

in a silent midnight

the warm air from downstairs 

and the chill from the cracks in the windows

mixing at my feet 

discovering each other

in little sparks

swirling up and down the stairs

like stars 

visiting each other in the night

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I will be new 11/27/17

If the human body replicates

every seven years 

that means that one day 

I will have skin you never touched

blood your never froze

and a heart you never broke

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I Won’t Have to Forget

I find my roots everywhere

I don’t have to fly to them 

That plate looks Granadine

I can tell by its thick blue brushstrokes 

That breeze just now feels like

where the 2000 year old chapel guards its poppy field 

I smell Marseille soap on this linen 

as if I were wiping the sea salt from my face again

My roots find me everywhere

so I won’t ever have to forget them 

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Introspection 11/25/17

There’s blood 

on my pencil 

because sometimes,

I can’t help but

open up

one of those old wounds

and see what alchemy-

wood, blood, and graphite-

can tell me 

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This is my street 11/24/17

i

My street is summer; 

it is a sweet breeze

in the hot sidewalk weeds,

ruffling the green standing

so happily, so fruitfully,

on either side of me,

my street is a warm peaceful, sleep

with a sip of leafy tea to take in

the scenery

ii 

This street is a reflection.

Its green is yellow 

and it is not lightly ruffled, tousled; 

it is ripped.

The sidewalks are gray

and its precious weeds are gone,

(I assume dead);

the tapering breeze brings dread,

I know the end 

to this yellow, final scene

iii

This is not my street.

This is a tragedy

and it’s pushing me away.

This cold wind,

this impenetrability, 

this whiteness

this silence

can bear no love;

it cannot bear me.

I close my eyes 

as I walk through this street.

iv. 

I know this street

and its pastel verisimilitude.

I know how its breeze

is perfumed, mellow,

an apology for what it will never be. 

I know the slow climb 

of vines across the sidewalks,

the slow introduction of pale green clouds

hanging from the newborn sun,

I know this street; 

I know this promise.

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11/23/17

green lakes 

bordered with drops

of hazel 

and broken leaves

of gold,

they are deeper than anyone

could imagine

but are intimate 

to their depths

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Moon 11/22/17

Beautiful moon,

world of silence

your birthmarks standing

as mute craters

Dried lakes of silver,

silk flowers

glowing in their thoughts

and their thousands of years

Sing your mute,

distant song,

as the world sleeps

silenced in your night

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Mist 11/21/17

The mist around us

the yellow leaves surround us

I can’t see at all

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Secretos 11/20/17

En ese momento,

ese en el que me abrazabas-

sin decirte nada,

sin romper nuestro amor,

oí por primera vez

tu corazón