Cam Joyce is a sixteen year old creative writing major at Interlochen Arts Academy and lover of sitcoms, linguistics, and music. Most recently, you can find her work in the Red Wheelbarrow, the Raven Review, and Everscribe, she’s a creative nonfiction editor and social media manager at the Etymos review; she has also been recognized by Depaul’s Annual Blue Book and the Scholastic Arts and Writing Awards. Other than writing, she enjoys over-analyzing movies and T.V., connecting with other young artists, and overplaying Tyler the Creator and Phoebe Bridgers.
I will be a good poet and a better friend,
I promise. This time I will only ask about
the weather, your mother, your friends, I won’t think
too hard. I’ll write more about boys, fruit, stray dogs,
be more purposeful, tell you ‘I’d love to hang out this
summer’. I will highlight, underline, every book I touch.
I won’t tell you we’re going to burn in the heat.
This time I’ll understand end words, know
when something is over, I promise (I won’t
say a thing about Minnesota) if you beg me to
read ‘the poem about me’, I’ll say: ‘No, not this
time.’ At sunset I will hand you the aloe, let you
leave without any protest. I’ll burn the poem, start
over. I will understand the difference between effect
and affect. This time, I promise, I’ll get it right.
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