May 26

”Petals? or Pedals?” 

“Why on Earth would you raise your foot off the petal…?”

“To say I rose to the occasion” 

“That was beyond horrible”

An actual conversation between my mother and I on the 1/3 times she took me out to drive when I was practicing for my license. From that point on I always saw my mother as a Rose, a flower that’s nature’s paradox. 

A normal greeting between my best friend and I, a combination of few basic words that serve as my personal reservoir of strength and happiness. I will literally reverse my hug, rewind to the point I’m no longer in her view and press play if we skip the routine introduction. “KFC def has kids and he’s living his best life.” “I hope so, he used to greet us everyday.” Just a casual hope here shared between my soul nugget and myself; a bird, whom we hamed after the Fried chicken fast food chain, used to perch itself at 6:30am every morning as we waited for the train to school. One morning he wasn’t there and now I think it’s because his work was done. He helped bring two strangers together for life by giving something to break the ice with.

Princess R., Philadelphia, PA, US

3.12.2020