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Megan Hemenway is a freshman at Endicott College, majoring in Communications and minoring in Creative Writing. She is originally from Woburn, Massachusetts and has had a passion for writing and the arts since she was a little girl. Although she has found poetry difficult in the past, she believes this poem (among others), has helped her grow a fondness for poetic expression.

3 floors up

Megan Hemenway

echoes slip through

the cracks of the

thin-walled

room i am in

wet hair presses

into a dirty rug

cradles my

soft skull,

staring up.

i am bared

a wide eyed sacrifice,

wishing i were high

scared of where i

might end up.

those winding stairs scream

insults at bleary eyes,

burning knees,

my craving

someone’s nearness

cold light shines

bleakly onto the ceiling,

the water marks darker,

i work even harder to avoid you.

scribbling like a madman

on this overworked desk

to pass the time without you

and yet, i remain on the floor

still damp, still sober, still.

the night seems barely alive

— Megan Hemenway

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