Life As I Know It

So this is the piece I’m submitting to the Literary Magazine at my school. I’m the Copy Editor, so I feel I should submit something. I’ve been working on this for a while but I’d still like some more look-overs. If you’re out there, and you read this, PLEASE give some constructive criticism. I really want some.

The story behind this is that instead of writing a whole new story, I pulled lines from past poems, short stories, blogs, and emails I have written in the past few months. I took the lines and smooshed them together in a somwhat organized fashion to create my own unique “anthology” of my writing.

Please, please, please let me know what you think. It’s called ‘An Anthology of Infinite Words’ (and originally all the different pieces were different fonts and whatnot):

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I didn’t know my family owned a fish until the day it died. I am socially awkward, but I do enjoy getting lost in a crowd of people. I’m the kind of person who keeps the fan on in the winter. I am open, and I am nothing, and I am a part of something bigger than the case that restrains me.

I closed my eyes to blow out the candles of a vanilla ice cream cake in August, and opened them almost midway across November. I will blink again, and it will be April. Another year, another birthday.

“Maybe I’m eighteen,” I said with a smile coyer than the fish as I ate my doughnut.

I can never find parking spots at the mall, but I do love to people-watch this time of year.

“Lets have an adventure,” she told me.

Some nights I sit on my back porch with a blanket and watch the planes get ready to land. My toes are cold and clammy like a little boy with a fever, just the way I like them.

“You can see the stars in the water,” I said. Everything else just vanished.

Distraction, distraction! There is no other taste like the burn of control against my fingertips. At least I had tonight.

Flash. Give me insanity. Artificial air freeze burns pictures of salvation. Imperfections and flaws are second nature necessities. All hope is gone for I have lost my sanity to a shared bathroom! I am oatmeal and wine. I think I want some Cheerios. I kind of like the chaos.

My favorite tree lies just beyond my window; red is slowly eating away at the green hearts. I watch each leaf being consumed, dripping with auburn jaws. Soon, there will be nothing but bones: desolate branches being abused by the wind.

Only quarters. Burnt tongue. Lonely leaf on the ground. Tree shivering – wants its skin back. Screw you caffeine. I want to sleep forever.

It’s funny how things change.

Frustration isn’t like in the movies — It doesn’t just magically disappear if you close your eyes, take a deep breath, and get a really determined look on your face. There’s nothing more upsetting than waking up to find reality isn’t as beautiful as you want it to be. So I guess in the end it really was my fault.

There will be tension spilling out the chimney as my family congregates into the same house at one time and angry words teetering on the verge of chapped lips, held in only by bitter tongues. It’s like being Donnie Darko, but never figuring out that you have to stay in bed.

I swear we were infinite.

My mind swims in the empty fishbowl. Big gulps. Big gulps. I need oxygen. But none of that compares. I feel like I have this story in my head. I guess I will just keep watching the planes go by.

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For the record, I cannot figure out why some parts look like links (they’re not). And I don’t know how to fix it so deal with it.