NEW YORK swallow me whole me swallow NEW YORK

Madelyn May (@madelynmay28)

AND STILL - 

life is hollow, without art, 

without making, i tick as parts, 

cogs and hours, growing mold, 

a seasoned body, reader, behold! 

let me live an authentic life, 

freedom, come, and cling to my knife, 

yet i freeze under that creeping sting 

that asks if any of this means anything. 

i sense myself as i slide, 

inches to that icy divide. 

my vision blurred, my muscles thin, 

where even wanting feels forsaken. 

BUT I KNOW - 

stop this ache and you stop the heart 

i need to 

make to 

move to 

risk to 

create to 

feel less small 

i try to cajole: 

this place, crack me open and seize control! 

wider! 

wider! 

look at its pull! 

please, life, please, 

i’m brave enough: 

swallow me whole AND 

STILL -

Madelyn May is a writer based in New York City. She has a BFA in Screenwriting and History from Chapman University and has worked and written across mediums such as television, film, journalism, and poetry. She currently works in the Art Department at HarperCollins Publishers. She writes from a neurodivergent perspective that foregrounds the contradictions usually hiding in plain sight.