Magnolias

For you two. Because, as you know, your story inspired me to write one just like it. Your effect upon me created a world I can never enter and a dream I cannot wake up from. You made me question reality, and for that I will be forever thankful. My world would not be the same without the answers.

I speak for Thena--and all the others--when I say I'm glad you got on board the train. Safe travels.

And to the rest of you who couldn't make sense of that jargon, don't worry. I have something to say to you, too, and it's in regular English:

Know where to seek your shelter. Find your hiding place, safe from the world and all its trouble. Whether it be in a journal, or a quiet corner, or even in the tranquility of your dreams, discover the one place where you truly feel invulnerable. Invincible. Undeniable.

It will be in that place that you will learn not only who you are, but what you were born to do, who you will help and who you will hurt, what you will know and what will fail you. Your own sanity cannot be made through the work of others; it's your duty to preserve it.

Don't forget the world. Just let it run by you for awhile so you can figure yourself out. You may not be the person you thought you were, and your future, though not entirely predestined, may not be what you wanted. Do the best you can with what you've been given.

Who am I to lay down these rules, you ask? Well, for one, I'm a human being. Two, I'm a human being with a functioning consciousness. And three, I'm a conscious human being who has traveled the road of the lost and lonely and found a shortcut back to life. [I'd also like to add that four, I'm an incredibly bossy adolescent who likes to tell people what to do.]

I'm not done with the shortcut, either. I'm still walking. Still seeking, still searching, still finding reality.

For you, then, my guides. I learned from you the importance of shelter, and I hope my telling of your story does it justice. In the meantime, I present the song to which I listened while writing the beginning of my most peculiar novel yet.


"Magnolia"--The Hush Sound
Your heartbeat is pulsing at night in your chest
It's gold and it's glowing with all the life you have left
I received your words from hospitals where you felt alone
Your words like smoke, they made me sick but they kept me warm...

Your eyes are like sea glass, so weathered and worn
From all they've seen of adolescence torn
The lovers who have tainted you, they pulled you into the night
They touched your skin with velvet gloves and made you feel alive

Run where you'll be safe
Through the garden gates
To the shelter of magnolias
There's not much time
The blush in the sky begins to fade

You are weathered and worn
Your petals soft and torn
The fading color
You have bent your shoulders
To hold the weight of the world
You will surely shatter.