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About the Author

​Veronika Illyushyna was born in  Kiev, Ukraine, raised in Chicago and is currently living in Sarasota, Florida. She is a DACA recipient who's poetic writing style stems from past trauma and growing pains. Her metaphorical poetry is often inspired by nature and works by Nayyirah Waheed and Warsan Shire.

Mom is That You?

It's times like these,
When I'm counting the seconds,
Until I finally end,
That I want to be hugging my mom so tightly.

It's times like these,
When I want to fade,
That I stop,
Because I remember her face a little longer.

- I wish this was an April Fools Joke.

Permanent​

Everyone warned me,
Not to get your name tattooed on my body,

but no one warned me, 
that you'd always be on my mind.

No one told me about the invisible ink,
that would be flowing inside my head.

I kept my skin untouched,
Yet my brain is covered in your name.

Lobe​

I took a psychology class in college.

My professor said, 
the parietal lobe controls our pain senses.

I guess mine's been broken for four years.
You cost me so much pain, 
Yet I stayed.

At some point your kisses felt like,
papercuts.

Antithesis​

Your heart is flying into space.
Mine is trying to find the depths of the ocean.
We're so distant,
So paradoxical.
You're running out of oxygen,
I'm about to get crushed from the pressure.

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