Fine! Fine. You got me, okay? I said all week that I wasn’t going to write a piece that started with two lines from a song that unexpectedly has deep and personal relevance to me, cut to some narrative, cut back to two lines from later in the song, rinse and repeat. But here I am. It works! I get ...
During your young adulthood, the only thing more inevitable than acne is the three-week Minecraft-playing phase you’ll undergo at least once per year. For me, the game once again infiltrated my computer following the release of the 1.21 update this past June—the internal peace I gain from mining ...
Sometimes a poem makes you feel happy. Sometimes a poem makes you feel sad. Sometimes a poem makes you feel viscerally upset for no discernible reason. This happened to me a few years ago, when I first read a fragment of “Accident Report in the Tall, Tall Weeds” by former United States Poet Laureate ...
The age-old adage, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me,” appears to have been forgotten by our generation.
If you’ve ever had a Twitter account or are in touch with popular culture in the US, you have definitely encountered the controversial character that is Azealia Banks.
There’s no mistake that a simple kick drum can make you sway. A four-on-the-floor beat, with some hi-hat on the off-beats, makes anyone nod their head, no matter the genre. But with Fleetwood Mac, their drummer, Mick Fleetwood, adds some flare to it in the form of wind chimes. These ringing metal ...
Upon seeing the RISD Museum’s Asian Art special exhibition “The Road Less Traveled - Edo’s Nakasendō” in my Urban Studies seminar, I was inspired. Featuring a plethora of works from my favorite ukiyo-e (Japanese woodblock print) artists Utagawa Hiroshige and Katsushika Hokusai, the beautiful ...
I have always loved the way that cubes of chicken stock dissolve into hot broth. My grandmother first taught me how to make chicken noodle soup when I couldn’t even see over the top of the stove. She sat me down on the counter next to the pot, explaining each ingredient as my grandfather helped chop ...
While some stay up late refreshing their internet browsers for just-released concert tickets, merch drops, or even current affairs, the only thing enticing enough to convince me to stay up past my 10 p.m. bedtime was, of all things…a Labubu.
You probably already know what a simile is. I have this distinct memory of sitting in a classroom, age nine or ten, tipping from side to side in one of those blue plastic chairs and listening to my teacher explain literary devices. Metaphor. Hyperbole. Onomatopoeia. I do wonder if there’s a better ...
My childhood in California can be memorialized as a hodgepodge of rainbow pool towels, water guns, cherry popsicles, plastic cups, and sticky fingers: a pandemonium of juvenile chaos that could only be found at a pool party. Speakers blasted my dad’s encyclopedic Shazam playlist while I splashed my ...
This summer, I reread Sally Rooney’s sophomore novel, Normal People, for the first time in four years. The first time I read it, I finished it in one sitting and fell in love, but didn’t completely understand why. Was I supposed to love the main characters? Hate them? Root for them? I reread the ...
In the car with my brother over winter break one year, I tried to inconspicuously Shazam the song he was playing. That move has seldom led me astray, and in this instance, it brought me to “Situations” by Robert Lester Folsom. I was struck by the song because of its last verse, one that spoke to ...
I’ll be twenty-two before you know it, and my final year of college starts in three days. I am watching the sun slip through the openings in the fence and gilding the honeysuckle. I am pressing my palms against the pavement, still warmed by the final day of August. I am listening to the cicadas. They ...
TW: sexual assault
In the past five years, the anti-diabetic medication Ozempic has entered the American pop-cultural vernacular. The medication has transformed into an unofficial weight-loss drug, lauded by celebrities and the affluent as a miracle pill that staves off hunger. The Ozempic era has coincided with the cyclical ...
Today I’m in the museum lobby, newly thrifted jacket in hand, waiting for my friends to come out. Today I’m in Amsterdam. Specifically, I’m at the Rembrandt House Museum, though I wouldn’t know—I haven’t gone past the lobby. Still, “Rembrandt van Rijn" is written in a font so big it’s ...
You realize that you’ve forgotten to throw Love in the trashcan. Love passed its expiry date a year ago but remains stuck to the ceiling of your room because you want to stare at the ceiling and think of Love every night before falling asleep.
When a poet meets their hero, they are left frank and unpoetic. I had rehearsed every moment, every word, every gesture for years. I promised my poise would be practiced to perfection. I would impress her with my words, speak naturally in metaphor and alliteration— prove that I was a poet in practice ...
Solutions by The State News
