December Poetry Compilation

The Sunstroke Monthly Poetry Compilation is a collection of poetry submitted by Sunstroke readers and staff members. Take a seat, light a candle, grab a cup of tea, and dive into the intricate words of our community.

Submit to future compilations at hello@sunstrokemagazine.com!

Lingua Franca by Sarkis Antonyan

your mouth became the gun that i

feared in my dreams

when it shot out those tiny

beads like fragments

my hand grew into a faltering dove   the ink

from your tongue splashed

on its feathers   perhaps those

syllables cradled me

into a daze when you said Our language

is a weapon in the bird

beak i could only hear

Never forget it

Personification of Astrology by Abbie Thacher

What I hold and what I reach for are two different things

I hold the truth, the way things are

I reach for an idealized version of such things, an idealized interpretation of the truth

The truth is stiff and unending contradicting and bending 

itself to the will of those in power

Because they say truth is power but it feels like the powerful get to decide what is true

The truth is stiff and unending contradicting

And my head is spinning 

Trying to keep up with what truth repeats and sticks and what truth retreats, 

cowardly because human morals are not fixed

I am reaching for a balance of beauty within movement and order. 

The universe expanding farther

Farther than I can imagine 

But sometimes I like to sit and imagine an idealized version of such things

Juvenalia by Daniel Natalo-Lifton

It would seem at 25

You were still finding juvenalia

And when you parted

They too left on a terraqueous

Surrounded by our rotted romance

And the foods you refused to eat,

Youthful indeed,

Shall we end irenic and scrubbed clean?

or 

Soft and stewed and bittered in green herb?


Mania by Coralline Ethier

(From “She Dreamt Under Clear Blue Skies”)



It’s a lifelong struggle of feeling

like you’re too much and not enough

simply inadequate at all times

touching imperfection, feeling it all over

trying so hard to pull out what feels like

it shouldn’t be there

when really deep down you know

you shouldn’t be there at all

but then in the mirror somehow

taking pieces of yourself away

only made it worse

you never want to look at your face anymore

but people look

and you try to hide

but how can you ever hide from yourself?



and you try so hard not to give in 

you live every day with this feeling

that pieces of you shouldn’t be there

like they have to be removed

until one day you will be removed completely

and what then?

you’re shaking, you’re nervous, you fight it

you don’t want people to worry

there are people who have it way worse

you tell yourself

your battle feels small and laughable

yet you’re still caught up in it

you feel guilty, selfish

but helpless most of all

you keep saying you’ll deal with this

you brush it off when they ask

but this feeling, this impulse

this urge that itches

it lives on with you.

Thoughts of Mine by Hannah May

I want to sit alone on a ferris wheel

Observing the world as clouds do

Tired metal

The thrill of hesitant resolution

Red and yellow

Blurred together

Distorted

I want to stand at the edge of a cliff

Crumbling earth

Pebbles destined for greater things

A stranger to all thoughts

Wonder

I’d like to spend my eternity in the stars

Dancing amongst constellations on weary limbs

Eyes that hold the universe

Cradling galaxies

Expansive and ever mysterious

Freedom

Beautiful things exist in all that we allow

And I shall live to find each one







cultureSunstroke Magazinepoetry compilation, Mikayla LoBasso, photographyComment