A THING by ALEX GEMSTONES
Sometimes I get high before writing poetry
sometimes i get high before cracking my fingers and opening a new doc on my laptop. i find that in those moments i can hold my very essence in the palm of my hand. in fact, i am writing the poem as the THC courses through my blood and i am acutely aware of how different the world feels as opposed to normal. every second lasts eternity and is filled with so much wonder, but as soon as it ends i forget what happened in that previous precious second. it’s easy to lose track of time, as it slips through my fingers like sand heated up by the southern sun and refined by the violent winds and as i try to think, the thoughts slip through my fingers too; hold on, this one is important, i gotta go to the loo.
where was i? oh yeah, endless seconds and no thoughts and oh, every breath is infinite and every secret of the universe is open to me—my mind is finally soaring free from worries, anxieties, distress and depression and i feel myself becoming a catalyst of creation. my fingers tirelessly clack against the letters on the keyboard, as i spawn words and rhymes out of nowhere and spin them round and round and round till nothing makes sense, but at the same time everything does. i’m doing what i was meant to do—creating and finally breathing with my full chest and letting myself become one with the world.
Alex Gemstones (he/she/they) is a translator and an aspiring poet. They were born in Russia and haven't been to their home country in years because there they would immediately be accused of extremism (being queer), treason (denouncing the war), spreading propaganda (wanting a better life for their people), and immorality (just being who they are). They write with the hope that one day someone somewhere will find joy in reading the words they wrote.