Emily Colby I, TOO

I, TOO

by Emily Colby

How do I tell them that I am the entire Pacific Ocean’s worth of waves crashing against the California shore. With me, I move plastic and pike, surfers and sharks

am Michelangelo’s right pinky. I carve eyelids and nostrils from muscle memory, I guide the peach-colored brushstrokes of naked skin onto ceilings and walls blessed by God

am an antique. An oaken wood table standing chipped and wobbly and eighty years strong. Memories live in me, I know what it is to have passed through time

How do I tell them that

While I am a calf ’s timid, brave first steps, a candle dripping wax onto white linoleum, a steel-string guitar, and a photo of your mother in her youth

I am also a daughter of religious parents, an amateur tie-dyer, a week-old vase of roses, a beggar, a wannabe, a scholar, a poet, a dreamer

How do I tell them that I, too, am woman?

Avery Jackson is a junior studying Integrative Public Relations. She seeks to work in communications for a company that connects with her values. Beyond work, her passion for writing began in a Hannah Montana notepad chalked with song lyrics and book ideas. Now, she has rekindled her love for prose and poetry and hopes this is only the start of her creative writing career. She also has a love for music, mysteries, and Animal Crossing.