To Allow People To Treat You Bad Is The Second Biggest Mistake. First Is, The People Themselves.

To allow people to treat you bad is the second biggest mistake. First is, the people themselves.

I feel liberated at the thought of not looking back. As if looking back was holding me hard, to what I did not want to hold. It was scary for me to walk ahead, but scarier to stay back and be held.

-VS

People often have callous ways to talk to us- even the ones who we are pretty much attached to. That is one issue. Another one is that we are expected to take all the callousness, rudeness and harsh treatment as a joke because they don't mean it. And if we allow ourselves to feel hurt, we are not cool enough. Being cool means laughing at things that should be scoffed at. Is it?!?

I need it viciously- for people to draw clear bold lines about jokes and seriousness. You don't get to joke about my insecurities. You don't get to call me mean things. You don't get to make me feel like an unimportant unworthy piece of ruin who deserves anything but kindness. Sorry, I don't approve.

It's been raining all day. I'm not old yet but I'm not young either- stranded in a limbo of young adult. All my friends are cities away, and I'm wondering who I am. My friends are photos and texts. My friends are video calls on Friday nights, most anyways. My friends are one call away but my bones remember the miles between us, hundreds- even thousands. I'm not old yet, but my shoulders bear the weight of countless goodbyes. I'm not young either. I can place a call but I stare at the rain. I can send a text but I write a stupid poem.

-Ritika Jyala, excerpt from The Flesh I Burned

How much of a poet/writer I am?

Tonight, while I was sleeping after a long day, I dreamt the plot of my next best seller. The one from the genre, I didn't like much or I thought I didn't. The scenes were real and well executed. I guess my brain is more of a poet/writer than I will ever be.

-VS