”routine” faces traditional ideals of womanhood head-on, exploring the liberation and confinement many women have experienced as a result of their sex.

All three poems are separate works.

When Starting my first year of high school, there was always one voice pushing me to excel: my grandmother’s.

I chose two moments that are a prominent part of my life: when my family and I drive up to Point Reyes, where we hike and spend time together, but I am often dragged along to do things with them.

This poem is about me, and my relationship with poetry as someone who has a minor speech impediment.

Adjusting is a short poem I wrote after being inspired by the nature of growing and how that affects me personally.

I am really passionate about climate change, the environment, and animals, so I often try to communicate those types of themes in my writing.

The idea for this story actually stemmed from an idea I had to make the craziest twist possible for a detective story, which then evolved into something more psychological. Inspired by George Orwell’s 1984, I drew from the concept of doublethink—the mind’s ability to hold two contradictory beliefs at once.

That strange dichotomy of enjoying people’s presence while being scared of talking to people has seeped into this poem.

”PICTURES, TODAY” describes a pair of friends taking photos together, but is inspired by two separate conversations I had with my friends.

In the grey area I call Asian American culture, we have a unique tradition of never saying sorry.

I wanted to write about my experiences with life in social and academic settings in a way that can cater to others and be understood in different ways because of it’s vague and fictional nature.

It’s just so much fun to try and push the boundaries of what can be considered a story.

A typical teen named Lucy Bennett lived in Antioch; she discovers is part of a line of witches after her grandmother’s death.

When I started having the thought of writing this story ” The whispering woods” , I had this dream of the same exact plot and myth in this story but with different characters and myself within it.

I wrote this poem for a school poetry showcase. I had spent days trying to come up with something new and I had no luck.

It is easy for one to inherit their own parents’ abusive traits when raising their own young.

Blackhole is my second poem (that I’ve done willingly).

The parallels of how in the story of ”Antigone” by Sophocles, Antigone is able to bury her brother in the end and willing to risk her life and commit treason so her brother can have a burial.

An Unlucky Girl In An Unlucky World is a reflection on my cancer diagnosis during a time when I was deeply struggling with my cultural and spiritual identity.