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Issue 5.1

Winter 2025

Asia Franklin

Reflection

I wrote this with that sense of hedonism I spoke of in the piece itself. It allowed me the space to speed up the words a little in the way you read or say it aloud. I hope it carries that feeling. I hope you feel with your heart which words to move the pace on.

Soon Enough will be Enough

​

I moved deeper into the night, 

the elixir of your voice carrying me 

​

the whole way through. 

​

Promising everything in exchange for everything.

My name knelt inside me. 

Not the one my mother gave me, 

the one I chose, the one you chose, 

the one you called me before you said I love you.

My favorite word is hedonism, 

the way it rolls off my tongue, 

and I say it over 

and over and over 

and over and over 

and over, because I want to. 

A treadmill of words, 

of fantasies. 

Like everything I did so you’d want me. 

Save for, abandoning my body 

so you could walk around me in circles, 

laughing at me, pointing at me, punching at me,

telling your friends about it just to do it again.

Your shrugs are a fallacy in a long line of people

waiting for me to touch them. 

How soon is too soon? 

When do I leave my body and know that I’m coming back? This speed isn’t enough, and what a shame 

it is to be alive. 

​

Let alone, again.

Asia Franklin is a young writer from Texas. They are currently an undergraduate studying philosophy and creative writing. 

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