The Sophomore Year Experience

Three Piece Suite
I.
Lies fall aside, like my black bra on messy sheets.
You told me you didn't have a girlfriend,
but you didn't mention her or her.

II.
You grew up poor but drove me in a Cadillac.
I wonder if I had more to give than kisses
you wouldn't have left me for ambition.

III.
We parked outside the forest, with the radio on,
tuned to the rhythmic cadence of our breathing
until our lives had fallen off-beat.

The Sophomore Experience is a semi-autobiographical compilation of poetry, on subjects such as college, travel, suburbia, relationships, and queerness, written during the author's second year at a small private Christian university and her leave after it. Written in a timeline that begins with the breaking of relationships and ends in the mending of them, "The Sophomore Year Experience" invokes emotions such as rage, longing, depression, regret, and forgiveness. Set in the suburbs of the San Gabriel Valley, Los Angeles, and other foreign places, it is about a young woman's journey to find home in people and other places.