Ay Jay

“Dear Spice” by Ay Jay

Dear Spice, I bet you’re reading this in some sort of uncomfortable position. You’re probably sitting upside-down on the couch, with your feet dangling over the back edge and your head prickling with the slow rush of blood, chin tucked into your chest as you flick through these loose pages. You might be chewing on a sticky-sweet date, following a dish of curry coconut rice with tangy lemon chicken, or sipping black sun tea (which sounds awfully nice right now). At this moment, I’m trying to think of how to address a lette...

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“Tick” by Ay Jay

Everywhere I go with Geo, three things are consistent: him pointing out funny clouds, his shy smile, and the faint tick of his insulin pump.  “That one looks like a rabbit,” he leans closer to me, and I have to bump him back.  “You’re gonna make me crash the cart,” I motion to the Safeway cart, which is piled high with items of all kinds. We’ve got naan bread and tzatziki for lunch, vanilla extract and butter for a cake we’ll make later tonight, a pack of gum (“for smoochin’,” Geo explains as he tosses it up into the air, grinnin...

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“Because I Said So” by Ay Jay

Submitted to Contest #94

 “Why not smile for us, pretty girl?” The man across the street shouts to my mom. I open my mouth to shout back in retaliation, but my mom grabs my wrist, firm. “Frida,” she warns. “Leave it.” I don’t want to, so I flash him the finger behind my back. He grins, his gray teeth looking more like a rat’s and less like a human’s. I try not to gag, and my mom opens the door to the bookstore for me. “Come on, Free.” The welcoming jingle of the bell on the door signals our leave from the cruelness of the outside world, the ...

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“Reflections” by Ay Jay

Submitted to Contest #92

It’s almost poetic when the lights of my dorm flicker and finally dim, casting my room into the inevitable hungriness of the March night.  I can’t react. Maybe Alina, my roommate, would curse at the power outage (the third this week, what with all the spring thunderstorms). My mom would grab me a flashlight and some blankets. Ben’s ghost arms wrap around me in a comforting hug, and the light from my laptop glows faintly in the empty room. Ben isn’t here. No one is. It’s just me and my thoughts.  I glance back at my laptop, the full...

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“I am Aura” by Ay Jay

Submitted to Contest #39

There is no way, no possible way, that I could be doing what I’m doing right now without, yet here I am. Perched in a cherry blossom’s full, blooming branches, I sweep the forest around me with my sharp eyes. My bow sits ready in my hand, arrow strung and string taught. My breath is next to silent, sneaking in and out of my mouth with little more than a shake of my dark curtain of hair. My hair is supposed to be twisted and in a woven bun, but obviously, running for my life and flying through the forest changed that. I peer pa...

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“Dancing” by Ay Jay

Submitted to Contest #35

A gust of cold Oregonian wind blows my curled, dark hair back as Sophie slides open the glass door. The pop music behind us mingles with the laughter and singing from inside the house. The porch, made of stone slabs has moss peeking through the cracks. It is cold on our bare feet, and damp from the day’s rain.  It’s a clear night in Arlington Heights, and the Portland lights that glitter like stars have turned on early, flashing and blinking in the March night sky. I’m laughing, my arm around the shoulder of my closest friend, Marin. Sh...

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“Staying Home With Lizzie” by Ay Jay

Submitted to Contest #34

I know she likes being home, because that is when she spends the most time swaddling me in a blanket or feeding me bits of parsley. She always unlocks the door, and I bounce from wire wall to wire wall in my pen, and when she has thrown her backpack and books to the floor, she always sighs and smiles at me."Dog, you will not believe my day." She begins, unwrapping from the layers of coats. I want to say, Lizzie, tell me more! like the guests that come to visit for food and work and talk. She continues, perhaps hearing my thoughts. "My Englis...

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“Distance Doesn't Matter” by Ay Jay

Submitted to Contest #34

Sunday, February 2910:31 PMJay: hey u up?Jay: helloooooJay: riiicoooooMe: k im up im up what do u wantJay: hows ur dog 😍😍Me: happy to see the food we brought home from costcoJay: haha Jay: wish my parents let me get a dog Me: haha Jay: not funny Jay: wish i was still in oregon washington sucks 😤Me: yeahJay: washington rainsMe: well good thing it never rains in oregon huh not a single drop of rain ever to dampen this ever bright and sunny sky 😶Jay: ...

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“Escape” by Ay Jay

Submitted to Contest #30

The air can’t fill my lungs fast enough as I sit, gasping, sweat drenching my thin nightshirt, blankets strewn across the bed and the floor. My heart is still pounding, my blonde-brown hair hanging in strings down my wet cheeks as I shake in the dim beams of the street lights.  It was not a dream, it was a sign.  I whisk away what is left of my sheets, government-issued and pathetically thin as they are, and pace my one roomed housing cube. The dream is slipping from me now, like water through cupped hands. There he stood, waiting ...

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“The Distraction of Stars” by Ay Jay

Submitted to Contest #28

The wedding is long, and boring, whereas the lake is cool and pleasant and distracting. My journal sits on my lap, open and blank, as I traced my finger up and down its spiral spine, my eyes turned to the water. The summer sun bounced off its glassy surface, creating a glow under the white tent. The couple to be married stands, holding hands, at the front, the man between them droning on about the moment they first found their true love.  I frown again, pulling at the straps of my dress. It sparkles when I move, and twirls around my an...

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“We Are Crew, Not Passengers” by Ay Jay

Submitted to Contest #28

“Ok, now Logan. What is the first moment we remember with Logan?” I leaned into the table, my elbows digging into the polished, glossy wood. The giggles coming from around me were punctuated with glances over at a short boy with light skin and shaved hair that sat at the opposite end of the table from myself, pursing his lips at the attention as he had done for years.  There were ten of us, all seated around the table on benches, in a cabin nestled in the middle of Jawbone Flats, Opal Creek Forest. It was the last field trip for us as a...

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“One More Step” by Ay Jay

Submitted to Contest #27

The wind howled over the lonely, rainswept sands, the ocean joining its song. The chorus of frigid and stormy noise on the beach accompanied the single being that walked on two legs amongst the birds and the sand fleas. It was a young girl, soaked as the sands that sank under her bare feet, hair stringy as the grasses that danced in waves behind her. There was a reason she walked alone, her hands stuffed into the pockets of her raincoat, chin tucked into her sweatshirt collar. It was great, and it was frightening. The girl-- whose name is Ol...

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