Good morning, everyone! I recently started another poetry class! *cheers in it shall be much easier to write plenty of poems for you all now*

A couple days ago, I wrote this persona poem, from the POV of Anala Armanti. I quite enjoyed writing it, but it was also very interesting to figure out where the message came from. I’ll let you read the actual poem first, though, before I continue talking about something you haven’t even read yet.

CW: Death, Fire

All Good Things – An Anala Persona Poem

In the beginning,  

everything was beautiful. Flames danced 

like sunbeams in the sky, twirling and shimmering 

rays of light and love. 

In a fireplace. Safe and protected. 

I saw my sister laugh like sunlight. Her eyes danced 

with tears, not from pain, not then, but from overwhelming 

happiness. Strawberry juice 

pink and sticky on her cheeks. 

I loved you more than I knew what to do with. My love danced 

like a ballerina on a tightrope, twisting and leaping for your 

attentions, for your gazes, for any hint of any sort of return for 

your love. 

But all good things must come to an end. That I know, 

that I learned well. That burned 

a hole in my heart and in my love. Flames 

burned in harmony with the screams of my pain  

and theirs, intertwined, 

a sweet symphony of vengeance and guilt and the crackling  

of my heart and the flames and your pain  

everlasting. 

I saw my sister lying there. Still in a box of wood. Designs burned 

into my memory and her coffin. Blurred, through tears 

mine, because she should not be lying there, 

pale. All the strawberries are covered in fluffy white rot. 

I learned the way love burns my skin  

more than it warms anything. I watched 

you tore scars across my back, across 

my heart, beat slows at the very preposition, the promises 

you promised and then left behind in the blink  

of a spark. 

To burn its way across my  

innocent happiness. Rendering it pale and dry and 

dead. 

Here, Anala has the belief that all good things must end. In her life, that’s how it’s been–she had something beautiful and lovely and desirable, and then it was destroyed. That’s how she learned to live her life. Relishing in the good with the knowledge that it will turn bad.

But I wanted to offer a counterpoint to this. This last month, I’ve been constantly focusing on finding joy in the little things, and living in the present. Not regretting over the past. Not stressing over the future. Just living, in the now. And in that present living, I challenge you to be present in the good of every moment. Especially as we go into Spring, where everything is blooming and fresh and free.

Embrace that feeling. Embrace that goodness.

Until next time,

~ Z.Rise