“Goodness” by Mikayla Sabwami ’24

By Mak Sabwami ’24

Our best days go by quicker than our worst

Some days, watercolors paint themselves across the canvas of our minds

Our hands know pens like they know their own palms Notes ring through tunnels, caves, canals Whispers are like breezes in our heads, the coolness keeping balance with the warm sweet nothings that follow

Those days, all is fine

More than that, all is good

How rare it is, for all to be good For us to be at peace with every ounce of ourselves

But those days pass As all days do And new days come As all days do

Some days clouds don’t part making for murky water, heavy shoes Somehow we can’t think

Somehow we can’t speak Somehow we can’t breathe

Everything seems to escape as soon as we catch it

When we bend back the pages of our thoughts we cannot reread

These days etch themselves into the marble of our brains until all we have left of the best days is the faint pitch of the notes the palmful of colorless brushstrokes The memory of goodness