Words spill onto the page like a million years
of history crumpled into five minutes of writing
the latest essay assigned by someone who could
never understand what it means to be filled to
overflowing with whispers, whimpers, willpower
needed for too many other things and yet, they
ask me to cut and cut and cut, never knowing
how often I have cut into the heart of myself
or how deeply, how thoroughly, I am writing
away a million years of history that erased me.
Larina Warnock
Larina Warnock describes herself as a one-time teen mother and high school dropout. She holds a doctorate from Creighton University and teaches high school in rural Oregon, USA. Her work has appeared in Rattle, Oregon Humanities, Barren Magazine, and others. Her TEDx Talk, “The Other Statistic,” is available to view on the TEDx YouTube channel.